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HIGH   PRIESTHOOD 

AND 

SACRIFICE 

AN  EXPOSITION    OF    THE 
EPISTLE  TO   THE   HEBREWS 


BY 

William   Porcher   DuBose,  m.a.,  s.t.d. 

author  of  "the  soteriology  of  the  new  testament," 

"the  gospel  in  the  gospels,"  "the  gospel 

according  to  saint  paul    j  professor 

of  exegesis  in  the  university 

of  the  south 


LONGMANS,    GREEN,    AND    CO. 

91  and  93  FIFTH  AVENUE,  NEW  YORK 
LONDON,  BOMBAY,  AND  CALCUTTA 

1908 


Copyright,  1908 

BY 

LONGMANS,  GREEN,   AND  CO. 


All  rights  reserved 


The  Plimpton  Press  Norwood  Mass.  U£A . 


CONTENTS 

CHAPTER 

I     Human  Destiny  through  Death        .... 

PAGE 

1 

II 

The  Divine  Propriety  of  the  Death  of  Christ  . 

23 

III 

The  High  Calling  of  God  to  Faith       .       .       . 

43 

IV 

Christ,  the  All-Tempted  yet  All-Sinless 

65 

V 

The  Elements   of  High   Priesthood   in   General  . 

87 

VI 

From   First   Principles   to   Perfection 

100 

VII 

The  Realization   of  High   Priesthood  in  Christ  . 

124 

VIII 

145 

- 

IX 

The  Sacrifice  that  Takes  Away  Sin 

107 

X 

188 

XI 

The  Faith  that  Inherits  Eternal  Life    . 

209 

XII 

233 

HIGH  PRIESTHOOD  AND  SACRIFICE 


HUMAN  DESTINY  THROUGH  DEATH 

Hebrews  1-2 

We  have  our  religion  through  the  medium  of  lan- 
guages that  have  been  long  dead,  and  that  present 
tendencies  in  education  threaten  to  render  more  and 
more  dead  to  us.  Along  with  the  languages,  there  is 
a  growing  disposition  to  relegate  the  ideas,  the  entire 
symbolic  expression  and  form,  of  Christianity  to  the 
past.  The  modern  world  calls  for  modern  modes  of 
thought  and  modern  forms  of  speech.  We  have  to 
meet  that  demand  and  be  able  to  answer  and  satisfy 
whatever  of  reason  or  truth  there  is  in  it. 

Revelation,  if  it  was  to  come  at  all,  had  to  come  at  a 
time,  and  in  the  ideas  and  language  of  the  time.  All 
that  was  possible  in  mitigation  of  that  inevitable  dis- 
advantage was  that  it  should  come  at  the  best  time;  — 
and  the  best  time  would  be  the  one  whose  ideas  and 
language  would  be,  not  only  the  most  universal  possible 
in  themselves,  but  also  the  most  convertible  into  the 
thought  and  speech  of  all  other  times.  From  the 
Hebrew  into  the  Greek,  and  thence  into  all  succeeding 
forms  of  knowledge  and  expression  among  men  — 
that,  in  all  the  long  history  of  things  as  they  have  been, 
2  1 


2  High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

was  the  actual,  as  it  cannot  but  seem  to  us  the  best, 
mode  for  the  entrance  of  the  things  of  God  into  the 
affairs  of  the  world. 

The  time  will  never  come  when  the  Christian  Church 
can  surrender  or  neglect  the  Hebrew  and  Greek  sources 
of  its  inspiration  and  life.  And  the  world  itself  will 
be  the  richer  and  better  if  it  will  help  us  not  to  do  so; 
if  in  all  the  channels  and  courses  of  higher  education 
it  will  multiply  the  facilities  and  help  us  to  magnify 
the  importance  of  these  best  means  to  its  own  highest 
culture.  There  are  two  tasks  before  us  as  students 
and  teachers  of  Christianity.  The  first  is  to  know  and 
understand  our  sources.  To  begin  with,  we  must  know 
our  Old  Testament  as  we  have  never  known  it  before, 
if  we  are  to  take  part  in  the  new  interpretation  of  our 
New  Testament  that  the  times  demand.  For  each 
time  must  have  its  own  living  interpretation,  since  the 
interpretation  cannot  but  be,  in  half  measure  at  least, 
relative  to  the  time.  If  the  divine  part  in  it  is  fixed, 
the  human  is  progressive  and  changing  just  in  so  far 
as  it  is  living. 

All  science  of  life  now  is  a  science  of  beginnings  and 
of  growth,  or  of  evolution.  The  New  Testament  as 
absolutely  transcends  the  Old  as  it  fulfils  it;  but  on 
the  other  hand,  it  is  as  actually  the  culmination  and 
completion  of  the  Old  Testament  as  it  transcends  it. 
The  thought,  the  language,  the  life  of  Christianity  are 
from  the  very  beginning  Hebrew,  transformed  and  as  far 
as  possible  universalized  by  transition  through  Greek 
thought  and  speech.     All  this  history  has  its  mean- 


Human  Destiny  Through  Death  3 

ing,  and  enters  largely  into  the  meaning  and  form  of 
Christianity  as  we  have  it.  But  it  brings  with  it  also 
its  embarrassments.  The  most  immediate  consequence 
comes  to  us  in  the  manifest  fact  that  we  are  attempting 
to  address  the  world  to-day,  in  the  matter  of  its  pro- 
foundest  interest,  in  terms  of  the  world  two  thousand 
years  ago.  We  have  first  to  know  what  those  terms 
meant  then,  and  to  prove  that  all  they  meant  then  they 
mean  now,  and  mean  for  all  men  in  all  time.  Are 
our  Bible  and  our  Creeds  to  be  recognized  by  us  as 
antiquated  ?  Are  the  Hebrew  phrases  and  terms  of 
priesthood  and  sacrifice,  and  the  Greek  or  Gentile  ap- 
plication of  them  to  the  Cross  of  Christ,  waxed  old  and 
ready  to  vanish  away  ?  Forever  no !  —  but  if  not,  then 
we  must  take  measures  to  preserve  them,  and  the  only 
way  to  preserve  them  is  to  make  them  as  living  to-day, 
as  much  part  of  our  thought  and  our  speech  and  our 
life  now,  as  they  were  two  thousand  years  ago. 

In  order  to  do  that,  we  must  cease  to  treat  the  phrase- 
ology, the  forms,  definitions,  and  dogmas  of  Christianity 
as  sacred  relics,  too  sacred  to  be  handled.  We  must 
take  them  out  of  their  napkins,  strip  them  of  their 
cerements,  and  turn  them  into  current  coin.  We  must 
let  them  do  business  in  the  life  that  is  living  now,  and 
take  part  in  the  thought  and  feeling  and  activity  of  the 
men  of  the  world  of  to-day.  I  propose  to  do  some- 
thing like  this  with  the  Gospel  in  its  most  primitive  or 
Hebrew  form,  in  the  form  in  which  it  was  actually 
commended  to  the  traditional  sympathies  and  under- 
standing of  the  Hebrews  themselves,  in  the  Epistle  to 


4  High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

the  Hebrews.  I  propose  to  take  those  most  ancient 
forms  or  figures  of  priesthood,  high  priesthood,  and 
sacrifice,  and  vindicate  their  eternal,  unchangeable 
truth  and  validity,  their  right  and  business  to  be  as 
much  and  as  necessary  part  of  our  thought,  our  life,  and 
our  speech  to-day  as  they  have  been  in  all  times  and  all 
places  of  the  world  from  the  beginning.  I  propose, 
however,  to  do  that  by  handling  them  freely,  by  trans- 
lating them  as  completely  as  I  can  into  the  current 
terms  of  our  own  thought  and  speech  and  life. 

The  Christology  of  the  Epistle  to  the  Hebrews,  the 
question  of  the  nature  and  person  of  our  Lord,  is  not 
its  direct  aim  or  subject-matter.  It  is  incidental,  as 
we  shall  see,  to  a  more  limited  and  definite  enquiry 
or  exposition.  Yet  there  is  no  part  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment more  livingly  and  consciously  Christological,  not 
only  in  its  presuppositions  but  in  its  positive  statements. 
According  to  it  the  place  and  part  of  Jesus  Christ  in 
the  world  is  an  eternal  and  universal  one.  His  function 
is  not  only  human  but  cosmical,  and  not  only  cosmical 
but  divine.  He  is  equally  on  one  side  identified  with, 
and  on  the  other  distinguished  from  —  man,  creation, 
and  God.  He  is  the  unity  of  them  all,  while  not  effac- 
ing in  Himself  but  rather  maintaining  the  distinctions 
of  them  each.  He  is  at  once  God  in  creation  and 
creation  in  God;  equally  God  in  man  and  man  in  God. 
He  is  practically  the  same  in  the  independent  concep- 
tions of  St.  Paul,  St.  John,  and  the  Writer  to  the 
Hebrews :  the  Logos  of  God,  who  is  not  only  God  in  all 


Human  Destiny  Through  Death  5 

things,  but  no  less  all  things  in  God.  I  lay  stress  upon 
this  eternal  and  essential  two-sidedness  of  the  nature 
and  person  of  our  Lord  because  it  is  of  importance  in 
our  exposition.  Jesus  Christ  did  not  more  come  into 
this  world  than  He  was  always  in  it;  He  was  at  no 
single  point  more  creative  cause  ab  extra  than  He  was 
at  every  point  creative  principle  ab  intra.  That  with 
which  Christianity  identifies  Jesus  Christ  eternally 
and  essentially  and  inseparably  is  not  only  God  but 
creation  and  ourselves.  He  is  the  meaning,  reason, 
truth  of  all;  and  not  only  the  truth  transcendental  or 
outside,  as  a  pattern,  but  the  truth  immanental,  within, 
as  a  principle  and  a  process. 

Our  Epistle  expresses  this  universal  relation  of  our 
Lord  by  designating  Him  as  at  once  final  and  first 
cause  of  all  things:  "Whom  God  appointed  heir  of 
all  things,  through  whom  also  He  made  the  worlds." 
(Ch.  I.  2.)  The  heir  of  all  things  is  He  in  whom  all 
things  terminate,  have  their  fulfilment  and  come  to 
their  natural  or  determined  end.  In  Jesus  Christ 
God  is  fulfilled  in  creation  and  in  man;  creation  is 
fulfilled  in  man  and  in  God;  man  is  fulfilled  in  God 
and  in  nature  or  creation.  The  final  cause,  the  pre- 
determined, determined,  in  the  highest  sense  natural, 
reason,  meaning,  or  end  of  all  existence  is  accomplished. 
Final  cause  is  the  only  real  or  actual  first  cause.  The 
end  determines  all  the  means,  sets  in  motion  all  the 
processes.  He  who  is  end  of  all  things  is  for  that 
reason  author  or  cause  of  all  things.  The  worlds  exist 
by  Christ  as  they  exist  for  Him.     Jesus  Christ  is  not 


6  High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

only  the  sole  emanation  or  self-expression  of  or  from 
God,  but  He  is  also  that  whole  expression,  the  perfect 
impress  or  express  of  God,  in  all  else.     (Ch.  I.  3.) 

It  is,  however,  only  one  part  of  this  universal  process 
that  is  traced  for  us  by  this  Epistle,  and  that  con- 
stitutes its  immediate  and  detailed  subject-matter. 
The  Epistle  is  a  description  of  how  Jesus  Christ  is 
author  and  finisher,  cause,  process,  and  conclusion  of 
human  redemption  and  completion.  The  cosmical 
bearing  or  significance  of  the  Incarnation  is  dropped, 
and  attention  is  concentrated  upon  the  act  or  process 
by  which  God  and  man  become  one  in  Jesus  Christ. 
It  might  be  said  that  the  physical  or  metaphysical  side 
of  the  question  of  a  possible  or  actual  becoming  one  of 
God  and  man  is  equally  left  out  of  consideration,  and 
attention  wholly  concentrated  upon  the  process  of  the 
spiritual  and  moral  unification.  This  is  indicated  by 
the  single  phrase  in  which  the  writer  expresses  the  en- 
tire act  and  function  of  the  Incarnation:  "When  He 
had  made  purification  of  sins,  He  sat  down  on  the 
right  hand  of  the  Majesty  on  high."  (Ch.  I.  3.)  God 
and  man  are  one  in  Christ  not  only  as  a  physical  or 
metaphysical  fact  but  by  the  supremest  of  spiritual 
and  moral  acts. 

We  may  take  an  even  further  step,  and  say  that  in 
our  Epistle  attention  is  directed  to  that  act  less  as  an 
act  of  God  in  man  than  as  an  act  of  man  in  God. 
We  have  only  to  remember  that  the  entire  activity 
of  man  in  God  is  itself  the  act  of  God  in  man;  but 
we  can  see  and  construe  God's  part,  the  cause,  only 


Human  Destiny  Through  Death  7 

in  man's  part,  the  effect.  We  can  see  God  in  the 
man  no  otherwise  than  in  that  which  is  the  act  and 
activity  of  the  man  himself.  We  can  see  God  even  in 
Jesus  Christ  only  in  what  Christ  is  and  does  as  man. 
God  does  not  manifest  Himself  outside  of  that  in 
which  He  designs  to  manifest  Himself.  Even  our 
Lord's  supernatural  knowledge  and  miraculous  powers 
as  exhibited  on  earth  were  not  without  but  within  the 
limits  of  His  humanity.  And  so  His  entire  act  of  unit- 
ing us  with  God,  redeeming  us  from  sin,  and  raising 
us  from  death  —  from  the  side  visible  to  us  or  constru- 
able  by  us  —  was  a  perfect  act,  the  perfect  act,  of 
humanity  in  His  person. 

It  is  in  keeping  with  this  that  our  Lord's  even 
cosmical  priority  or  supremacy  passes  quickly,  in  the 
Epistle,  into  man's  priority  or  supremacy.  He  is 
higher  than  the  angels  as  the  revelation  and  representa- 
tive of  man,  and  because  man  is  in  himself,  in  nature 
and  destiny,  higher  than  the  angels.  What  are  the 
angels  but  ministering  spirits,  servants  in  God's  house 
that  wait  upon  the  tine  heir  ?  For  not  unto  angels  did 
He  subject  the  world  to  come,  but  unto  man,  —  man 
who,  now  lower  than  the  angels,  is  destined  by  his 
nature,  which  means  predestined  by  God,  to  be  higher 
than  they,  to  be  even  the  head  and  heir  of  the  whole 
creation,  he  in  whom  God  is  Himself  to  be  fulfilled  in 
the  creature,  and  the  creature  to  become  one  with  God. 
We  see  not  yet  this  destiny  fulfilled  in  man,  but  we  do 
see  it  fulfilled  in  the  Man  who  is  the  Head,  and  in  whom 
(alone  as  yet)  humanity  has  come  into  its  inheritance. 


8  High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

Our  Lord,  however,  is  higher  than  the  angels  not 
only  as  Himself  man  but  in  His  official  relation  to  men. 
He  too  is  Servant,  but  while  they  minister  in  the  house 
and  to  the  heirs,  He  administers  and  is  Himself  both 
the  house  and  the  inheritance.  His  transcendence  is 
never  lost  or  forgotten  in  His  immanence.  Whether 
the  Writer  to  the  Hebrews  has  in  mind  the  relation  of 
the  Lord  to  the  creation  or  to  the  Church,  it  is  always 
a  question  with  him  whether  He  belongs  within  it  or 
without.  The  angels  belong  wholly  within  the  crea- 
tion, of  course.  But  does  He  belong  within  it,  with 
the  creature,  or  without  it,  with  the  Creator?  The 
answer  is,  both;  —  but  so  both,  that  the  question  is 
constantly  arising,  which?  So  again,  the  Lord  as 
servant  of  the  Church  is  like  Moses.  But,  only  like 
Moses  ?  No ;  for  while  Moses  is  servant  wholly  within 
the  Church,  our  Lord  is  servant  not  only,  even  more 
than  he,  within,  but  in  a  sense  infinitely  transcending 
him  without  and  from  above  the  Church.  Jesus  was 
faithful  as  was  Moses  in  all  his  house.  But  He  is 
counted  worthy  of  more  glory  than  Moses,  by  so  much 
as  he  that  built  the  house  hath  more  honour  than  the 
house.  Every  house,  whether  it  be  the  Cosmos  or  the 
Church,  is  builded  by  some  one.  He  that  built  them 
both,  He  that  built  all  things,  is  —  God;  is  to  be  classed 
not  with  the  building  or  the  built  but  the  Builder. 
Moses  was  faithful  in  his  house  as  a  servant,  but  Christ 
as  a  Son,  over  His  house;  whose  house  are  we.  This 
kind  of  both  comparison  and  contrast  runs  through 
the  whole  Epistle.     God  speaks  to  us  in  Christ  not 


Human  Destiny  Through  Death  9 

through  a  prophet  only,  but  in  a  son.  The  prophet 
transmits  only  one's  thought  or  message,  the  son 
transmits  one's  self,  one's  nature  and  life.  Joshua 
could  lead  the  people  of  God  into  only  an  earthly  rest, 
Jesus  into  a  heavenly  and  an  eternal  one.  Aaron  and 
his  successors  could  shed  the  blood  of  only  a  carnal  or 
representative  cleansing;  Jesus  Christ  alone  could  die 
the  death  which  is  the  death  of  sin  because  it  is  the 
life  of  God. 

That  Jesus  Christ,  nevertheless,  can  be  and  is  con- 
strued for  us  only  in  terms  of  man  and  man's  activity 
is  apparent  from  the  beginning  of  our  Epistle  in  the 
very  tenses  of  the  verbs  by  which  He  is  described. 
It  is  all  the  language,  not  of  timeless  being  but  of 
temporal  becoming,  not  of  divine  act  or  fact  but  of 
human  process.  Being  gives  place  to  becoming,  and 
aorists  and  perfects  take  the  place  of  presents  and  im- 
perfects, from  the  moment  of  the  Incarnation.  When 
He  had  made  purgation  of  sins,  He  took  His  seat  on 
the  right  hand  of  the  majesty  on  high;  having  become 
by  so  much  better  than  the  angels,  as  He  hath  inherited 
a  more  excellent  name  than  they.  Not  merely  by  the 
fact  of  its  purification,  rather  by  the  act  of  its  having 
made  for  itself  purification  from  sins,  humanity  in  the 
person  of  its  head  was  exalted  to  the  right  hand  of  God. 
In  that  act  and  fact  it  became  higher  or  better  than  the 
angels  by  realizing,  actualizing  the  nature  potential  in 
itself,  and  so  inheriting,  coming  into  mature  possession 
and  exercise  of,  the  name  and  status  of  sons  of  God. 

For  sonship,  in  distinction  from  mere  extraction  or 


10  High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

derivation,  is  distinctly  not  a  physical  but  a  spiritual 
dependence  and  relation.  We  can  inherit  it  only  as  by 
personal  act  of  our  own  we  ourselves  realize  and  fulfil  it. 
Although  the  heir  was  from  the  beginning  a  son  poten- 
tially, by  destination  of  nature  or  predestination  of 
God,  yet  actually  he  was  not  a  son  but  only  a  servant 
until  the  divine  spirit  of  conscious  and  accomplished 
sonship  within  him  had  made  not  merely  his  nature 
but  himself,  by  his  own  act  in  the  nature,  son  of  God. 
Jesus  Christ  became  higher  than  the  angels,  He  brought 
humanity  in  His  person  into  the  inheritance,  into  the 
accomplished  and  complete  possession  and  exercise  of 
the  nature  in  which  it  is  in  itself  higher  than  the  angels. 
For  man  is  the  end  of  creation,  he  is  he  in  whom  God 
reproduces  Himself,  His  Spirit,  His  character,  His  life. 
We  are  in  Christ  become  partakers  of  the  divine  nature 
not  only  in  posse  but  in  esse. 

Jesus  Christ,  and  humanity  in  His  person,  became 
son  of  God  in  a  definite  moment  and  by  a  definite  act. 
Unto  which  of  the  angels  said  He  at  any  time,  'Thou 
art  my  Son,  this  day  have  I  begotten  thee  ?  It  was  in 
the  day  of  the  Resurrection,  in  that  moment  of  His  and 
our  complete  death  to  sin  and  life  to  God,  that  we 
became  in  Jesus  Christ  sons  of  God,  no  longer  polentid 
only,  but  actu.  So  St.  Paul  says  of  our  Lord  that  He 
was  determined,  accomplished,  and  instated,  son  of 
God  in  power,  according  to  the  spirit  of  holiness,  from 
or  out  of  the  resurrection  from  the  dead. 

And  again  —  quotes  our  Epistle  —  I  will  be  to  Him 
a  Father,  and  He  shall  be  to  me  a  Son;  better,  I  will 


Human  Destiny  Through  Death        11 

become  to  Him  Father,  and  He  shall  become  to  me 
Son.  Humanity,  creation,  has  realized  its  meaning 
and  come  to  its  end,  when  God  has  come  to  His  father- 
hood in  it,  and  it  has  come  to  its  sonship  in  Him.  Not 
yet  do  we  see  this  in  creation  or  in  humanity,  but  we 
see  it  accomplished  and  complete  in  Him  who  is  their 
head,  and  in  whom  they  shall  come  into  their  inherit- 
ance. 

Our  author  quotes  another  passage  from  Hebrew 
scriptures  to  express  the  truth  that  when  again  in  final 
triumph,  and  in  the  restitution  of  all  things,  the  First- 
born of  humanity  and  of  creation  into  the  accomplished 
sonship  of  God  shall  return  to  be  glorified  in  His  com- 
pleted work,  the  angels  of  God  shall  know  and  worship 
Him.  The  angels,  according  to  his  conception,  are 
the  agents  and  instruments  of  God  in  the  order  of 
natural  creation;  the  Son  is  author  and  finisher  of  the 
spiritual  and  moral  order  of  the  universe.  It  is  as 
filled  with  the  spirit  of  holiness,  founder  and  head  of  a 
kingdom  of  divine  righteousness  and  life,  that  He  is 
described  as  anointed  with  the  oil  of  gladness  above 
His  fellows. 

The  natural  order  exists  for  the  spiritual,  and  is 
therefore  temporary  in  itself  and  eternal  only  in  it. 
The  heavens  and  the  earth  shall  perish;  they  all  shall 
wax  old  as  doth  a  garment;  they  shall  be  folded  up  as  a 
mantle,  and  as  a  garment  they  shall  be  changed.  Only 
that  in  them  shall  abide  which  is  the  eternal  and  un- 
changeable truth  of  Jesus  Christ;  the  personal  meaning 
and  purpose  of  God  in  them;  the  spirit  of  holiness, 


12         High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

the  kingdom  of  righteousness,  the  all-creating,  all-sus- 
taining, all-pervading  love  and  life  of  God.  They 
all  shall  be  changed,  but  Thou  art  the  same,  and  Thy 
years  shall  not  fail. 

Finally,  of  which  of  the  angels  hath  He  said  at  any 
time,  Sit  thou  on  my  right  hand,  till  I  make  thine 
enemies  the  footstool  of  thy  feet?  His  enemies  are 
ours;  all  our  enemies  are  already  under  His  feet  for  us; 
all  our  enemies  shall  be  put  under  His  feet  in  us. 

The  exact  propriety  of  the  application  of  all  these 
Old  Testament  ideas  and  quotations  to  the  full  truth 
of  Jesus  Christ,  as  they  had  long  before  been  applied 
to  the  growing  conception  and  expectation  of  the 
Messiah,  is  a  matter  of  secondary  concern.  The  New 
Testament  too  far  transcends  the  possible  meaning  of 
the  Old  to  be  ever  a  mere  interpretation  of  it.  Even 
the  Writer  to  the  Hebrews  is  not  so  much  trying  to 
interpret  to  them  their  Scriptures  as  seeking  to  find  in 
them,  in  their  ideas  and  hopes  and  figures,  warrant 
and  expression  for  the  transcending  fact  and  facts  of 
Christianity.  In  them  the  mind,  the  needs,  the  very 
language  had  been  moulded  and  prepared  for  the 
reception  of  a  truth  infinitely  greater  than  they  them- 
selves could  have  ever  meant  or  expected. 

So  much  of  what  has  been  so  far  said  as  needs  to 
be  carried  on  into  the  argument  before  us,  I  will  briefly 
repeat.  The  Lord,  in  this  Epistle  and  generally  in  the 
New  Testament,  spoken  of  as  the  mediator  of  the  new 
covenant  of  grace  and  salvation,  and  here  so  vividly 
contrasted    with    angels,   with    Moses,   and   with    the 


Human  Destiny  Through  Death        13 

Prophets,  is,  while  distinguished  from  God  (o  0eos),  at 
the  same  time  identified  with  God  both  in  creation 
and  in  redemption  in  a  way  which  infinitely  differen- 
tiates Him  from  all  creatures,  and  justifies  the  distinct 
characterizing  of  Him  as  God  (Oefo).  He  that  built  all 
things,  He  who  is  author  alike  of  creation  and  of  the 
new  creation  of  redemption  and  completion,  of  both 
the  world  and  the  Church,  is  God.  At  the  same  time, 
the  Lord  is  man,  and  is  spoken  of  wholly  in  terms  of 
man,  in  the  entire  process  of  His  work  for  man,  of 
His  being  or  becoming  human  redemption  and  com- 
pletion. Salvation  is  the  act  of  man;  and  only  the 
more  so  for  being  also  in  him  the  act  of  God.  Salva- 
tion is  an  act  of  man,  and  it  is  a  single  and  very  definite 
act  —  the  only  possible  act  by  which  salvation  could  be 
wrought  or  in  which  salvation  could  consist. 

A  great  deal  is  said  against  limiting  possibilities  with 
God.  But  is  it  not  a  contradiction  of  God  to  suppose 
that  what  He  has  made  to  consist  in  one  thing  might 
possibly  consist  in  another  and  a  different  thing?  If 
when  we  say  that  God  cannot  do  so  and  so,  we  mean 
that  God  cannot  contradict  Himself  or  throw  His  own 
creation  into  confusion,  then  we  are  right  in  saying  so. 
If  sin  is  man's  fall  and  ruin,  the  thing  from  which  he 
needs  to  be  saved,  the  cause  of  all  his  possible  other 
ills,  then  there  is  or  can  be  no  other  salvation  possible 
for  him  than  salvation  from  sin.  If  sin  is  the  opposite 
or  loss  of  holiness,  and  there  is  no  holiness  but  in  the 
mind  and  spirit  and  life  of  God,  then  there  is  no  salva- 
tion  for  any  creature   from   sin   or  to   holiness  apart 


14  High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

from  God,  or  without  the  spirit  and  mind  and  life  of 
God  in  him.  If  at  the  same  time  it  is  equally  true 
that  holiness  and  sin  are  nothing  if  not  personal  qual- 
ities and  characters,  and  as  such  absolutely  inseparable 
from,  or  unable  to  consist  in  anything  else  than,  what 
the  subject  of  them  is  in  and  of  himself,  then  it  follows 
that  only  the  man  himself  can  make  himself  either 
sinful  or  holy,  and  that  he  cannot  be  saved  from  one 
to  the  other  otherwise  than  by  an  act  of  his  own.  Our 
wills  are  ours,  though  we  know  not  how;  and  none 
other  than  we,  not  even  He  without  us,  can  make  them 
God's.  If  God  without  us  should  make  our  wills  His 
own,  it  would  not  be  our  wills  that  He  had  made  His 
own.  Human  salvation,  then,  is  a  definite  act,  and  a 
definite  act  of  our  own.  We  can  accomplish  it  in  only 
one  way,  by  only  one  process,  and  that  process  or  way 
is  determined  and  fixed  by  the  constitution  of  our 
nature  and  the  facts  of  our  condition.  There  is  nothing 
arbitrary  in  it,  nor  anything,  we  being  what  we  are 
and  things  as  they  are,  that  could  by  any  possibility 
be  otherwise. 

The  next  point  or  stage  in  our  argument  is  a  truth 
which  underlies  the  whole  and  in  fact  is  the  essential 
matter  for  our  consideration.  It  is  the  truth  that  there 
is  no  salvation,  at  least  no  human  salvation,  possible 
save  through  death.  The  death  of  Jesus  Christ  was 
no  mere  incident  or  accident  of  His  human  career.  It 
was  the  essential  thing  in  it,  as  what  it  means  for  us 
all  is  the  essential  thing  in  human  life  and  destiny. 
There  is  nothing  more  reassuring  upon  the  point  of 


Human  Destiny  Through  Death        15 

the  deep  spiritual  unity  and  inspiration  of  the  New 
Testament  than  the  unanimity  with  which  its  writers 
stand  upon  the  supreme  significance  and  necessity  of 
the  death  of  Jesus  Christ.  There  is  no  Christ  for  any 
one  of  them  save  the  Christ  crucified,  dead,  and  buried. 
The  blood  of  Jesus  Christ  is  the  only  possible  seed  of 
the  Gospel  or  the  Church.  We  see  not  yet  the  promise 
fulfilled,  the  inheritance  attained,  the  enemies  put  under 
foot,  all  things  subjected  unto  man,  humanity  sanctified 
and  glorified  through  purgation  from  sin  and  at-one- 
ment  with  God,  —  we  see  not  yet  all  this  realized  in 
ourselves,  but  we  do  see  it  all  accomplished  and  com- 
plete in  Him  who,  for  or  because  of  His  suffering  of 
death,  was  crowned  with  glory  and  honour;  that  by  the 
grace  of  God  He  should  taste  death  for  every  man. 
For  it  became  God,  there  was  a  divine  propriety,  —  a 
divine  propriety  because  a  human  necessity,  —  it  be- 
came God,  in  bringing  many  sons  to  glory,  to  make 
the  author  of  their  salvation  perfect  through  sufferings. 
He  was  not  merely  the  maker  or  creator,  as  one  may 
be  of  a  thing  outside  and  apart  from  oneself,  He  was 
the  author,  the  captain  or  leader,  the  forerunner  and 
firstborn,  the  beginner  and  finisher,  the  whole  process 
and  res  ipsa,  matter  itself,  of  the  glory  which  was  His 
only  as  theirs,  and  theirs  as  His;  He  was  not  only  our 
saviour  but  our  salvation. 

Wherein  lay  the  propriety  and  the  necessity?  Why 
is  death  not  only  a  necessary  constituent  but  the  essen- 
tial fact  of  salvation  ?  This  involves  something  of  an 
investigation    of   the    New    Testament    meaning    and 


16         High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

interpretation  of  death.  And  then  death  appears  to  us 
in  successive  stages  of  meaning:  death  as  a  universal 
and  imperfect  incident  or  fact  in  the  course  of  nature; 
death  as  a  personal  and  moral  act  by  which  we  trans- 
cend nature;  death  as  a  spiritual  birth  or  new  becoming 
of  ourselves  in  God,  because  of  God  in  ourselves.  We 
will  consider  each  of  these  in  turn. 

The  mystery  of  man  is  the  mystery  of  death,  and  the 
mystery  of  death  is  the  mystery  of  man;  each  is  inter- 
pretative and  explanatory  of  the  other.  Lord,  what  is 
man,  that  Thou  art  mindful  of  him  ?  Or  the  son  of 
man,  that  Thou  visitest  him?  Thou  madest  him  a 
little,  and  for  a  little  while,  lower  than  the  angels; 
Thou  crownedst  him  with  glory  and  honour,  and  didst 
set  him  over  the  works  of  thy  hands;  Thou  didst  put 
all  things  in  subjection  under  his  feet.  In  that  He 
subjected  all  things  unto  him,  He  left  nothing  that  is 
not  subject  unto  him.  We  see  not  yet  all  this  nature 
fulfilled,  all  this  destiny  accomplished,  save  in  One,  — 
and  in  Him  it  is  all  through  death,  by  reason  or  means 
of  death. 

Taking  death  in  all  its  meaning,  as  embracing  all 
its  stages  in  man  alone,  it  is  death  which  is  the  con- 
dition and  the  instrumental  cause  of  man's  superiority 
to  the  angels.  That  which  is  the  badge  of  his  weak- 
ness and  perishableness  is  in  reality  the  secret  of  his 
power  and  his  permanence.  The  seed  is  a  greater 
miracle  than  the  diamond;  the  possibilities  of  life  are 
more  wonderful  than  the  most  enduring  of  mere  forms; 
gold  is  a  perishable  thing  in  comparison  with  faith. 


Human  Destiny  Through  Death        17 

What  is  death  but  the  power  and  act  of  becoming, 
of  ceasing  to  be,  and  becoming  other  and  higher  than, 
the  thing  we  were  ?  The  mystery  of  man  is  the  power 
of  becoming,  through  death,  not  something  other  than 
himself,  but  his  higher  self  under  other  and  higher 
conditions..  The  reason  and  probability  of  such  higher 
conditions  and  life  lie  in  the  fact  within  him  of  his 
own  perfectibility,  or  inherent  capacity  for  higher  and 
highest  being  or  becoming.  There  is  no  limit  in  spirit 
to  its  power  of  a  higher  becoming;  all  the  limits  of 
which  we  are  conscious  in  our  nature  or  in  ourselves, 
apart  from  those  which  we  create  through  our  neglect 
or  abuse  of  our  nature  and  ourselves,  are  limitations 
of  matter  or  of  flesh,  not  of  spirit. 

Given  the  necessary  organs  of  self -activity,  and  there 
is  no  limit  to  the  possibilities  of  human  knowledge  or 
wisdom,  human  holiness  or  righteousness  or  life.  The 
limitations  are  in  the  instruments,  not  in  the  subject 
of  the  life  that,  is  truly  human.  There  is  no  reason  in 
myself  at  seventy  or  at  eighty  why  I  should  cease  to 
grow  wiser  or  holier.  I  break  off  perforce  at  the  end 
with  still  a  consciousness  and  sense  of  the  capacity  and 
power  to  become  infinitely  wiser  and  holier  than  I  am. 
I  see  in  Jesus  Christ  a  capacity  in  my  nature  as  spirit 
to  become  as  perfect  as  God  is  perfect.  I  have  never 
more  than  begun  to  be  what  I  could  fill  eternity  and 
infinity  with  becoming.  The  infinite  and  eternal,  the 
perfect  and  complete,  are  my  natural  inheritance.  Why 
shall  I  not  have  a  chance  of  being  more  than  the  im- 
perfect being  I  am  at  death,  when  I  know  I  have  the 
3 


18         High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

capacity  and  the  desire  to  be  so  infinitely  more  perfect 
a  being  than  I  ever  am  at  death?  As  Bishop  Butler 
says,  I  know  that  the  loss  of  my  present  powers  is  not 
the  loss  of  my  living  powers.  It  is  not  I  that  die,  but 
only  my  present  powers  of  life.  Renew  those,  and  I 
shall  continue  to  live;  refine  or  exalt  those,  and  I  am 
prepared  to  live  as  much  higher  a  life  than  before  as  my 
organs  or  conditions  of  life  shall  have  been  elevated  and 
improved.  This  is  not  speculation,  it  is  the  experience 
of  the  most  direct  consciousness.  The  wiser  and  the 
better  one  is  the  more  certainly  does  he  know  that  he 
has  but  begun  to  draw  upon  a  capacity  in  himself  for 
wisdom  and  goodness  upon  which  it  is  impossible  for 
him  to  think  or  place  any  limit.  The  very  conscious- 
ness of  infinity  and  eternity,  of  perfection  and  comple- 
tion, as  qualities  and  laws  of  ourselves,  is  the  potency 
and  promise  and  prophecy  of  these  things  for  us  and 
in  us.  To  deny  them  to  us  as  an  inheritance  and  an 
end  is  to  contradict  the  reason  and  the  consciousness  of 
spirit,  it  is  to  put  us  to  permanent  spiritual  confusion. 
Such  a  divine  promise  to  human  nature  and  human 
destiny  is  poetically  conveyed  by  the  quotation  from 
the  Psalms  in  the  passage  before  us.  What  is  man  ? — 
temporarily  so  low,  constituted  and  predestined  to 
become  so  high.  Is  it  not  a  living  and  a  lasting  ques- 
tion? What  is  to  be  the  limit  of  his  sovereignty  over 
nature  here,  of  his  higher  attainments  in  the  realm  of 
spirit,  his  higher  exaltations  above  himself,  elsewhere  ? 
The  promise  is  that  all  things  shall  be  put  in  subjection 
under  his  feet,  that  no  enemy  shall  be  left  unsubdued, 


Human  Destiny  Through  Death        19 

no  difficulty  unsurmounted,  no  height  unattained.  Is 
it  pride  or  presumption  to  take  the  prophecy  at  its 
word,  to  accept  its  fulfilment  in  Jesus  Christ  in  all  its 
divine  realization  and  reality? 

But  death  so  far  spoken  of  is  only  a  natural  change, 
a  potentiality  of  higher  organs  and  functions,  a  possi- 
bility of  better  external  conditions.  It  is  clear  that  the 
death  made  so  much  of  in  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ 
involves  not  merely  a  natural  but  a  moral  change,  the 
change  not  only  of  our  powers  or  conditions  but  of 
ourselves.  The  change  of  ourselves  is  necessarily  a 
change  by  ourselves.  No  change  wrought  upon  us  is 
a  change  of  us.  Personality  is  not  passive  but  active, 
and  self -active,  being;  we  are  only  what  we  ourselves 
are,  what  we  do  or  become  or  make  ourselves.  The 
death  of  Jesus  Christ  is  not  only  something  which  we 
must  suffer,  it  is  something  which  we  must  do.  Death 
is  for  us  a  moral  opportunity,  a  moral  requirement,  a 
moral  act.  We  acquire  our  moral,  free,  rational,  and 
right  personalities,  we  make  or  become  ourselves, 
through  our  opportunities  and  acts  of  not  being  some- 
thing and  of  being  something  else,  of  ceasing  to  be  one 
thing  and  becoming  another  thing.  Carry  that  to  its 
extreme,  and  you  have  the  supreme  opportunity  and 
the  supreme  act  of  Jesus  Christ,  the  act  in  which 
humanity  in  His  person  wholly  became  its  whole  self; 
—  how  ?  why,  by  wholly  ceasing  of  itself  to  be  all  that 
would  limit  or  contradict  itself,  and  fulfilling  all  that 
fulfils  and  constitutes  itself.  Such  an  act  involves 
infinite  effort,  infinite  endurance,  infinite  pain,  infinite 


20         High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

energy,  and  it  is  necessarily  so.  It  is  all  these  in  it 
that  makes  it  an  infinite  means  and  opportunity,  a 
perfect  discipline  and  instrument  of  the  perfect  activi- 
ties and  qualities  which  alone  can  make  us  perfect 
persons. 

Death  so  understood  is  the  power  not  of  being 
changed  but  of  changing  ourselves,  and  the  perfect 
change  which  our  higher  and  highest  life  involves  and 
exacts  of  us  can  be  expressed  by  nothing  less  than  an 
absolute  death  of  ourselves  in  all  that  mars  us  and 
an  absolute  new  life  in  all  that  makes  us.  The  rational, 
free,  moral  life  of  man  is  not  simply  to  put  off  vice  and 
put  on  virtue.  To  be  radical  and  real  it  must  be  a 
putting  off  the  complete  man  or  self  of  vice  and  putting 
on  the  perfect  self  of  virtue.  All  mere  moral  systems 
are  not  radical  and  real,  because  in  the  light  of  absolute 
standards  they  are  compelled  to  stop  infinitely  short  of 
the  absolute  and  real  requirements  of  human  life  and 
destiny.  Christianity  is  nothing  to  us  if  it  is  only  one  of 
the  systems  of  life  and  morals;  if  it  is  not  the  absolute 
morals  and  the  absolute  religion;  if  it  does  not  confer 
upon  us  and  does  not  exact  of  us  the  whole  of  life  and 
the  perfection  of  being.  Jesus  Christ  is  our  righteous- 
ness from  God,  He  is  our  perfection  as  God  Himself  is 
perfect. 

If  death  in  all  its  true  meaning  and  function  were 
only  a  complete  and  perfect  moral  change,  it  would 
stand  to  us  for  an  impossibility.  We  cannot  make  the 
change  in  ourselves  and  of  ourselves  that  the  law  of 
ourselves  and  of  God  requires.     The  law  in  requiring 


Human  Destiny  Through  Death        21 

of  us  an  impossible  one  thing  only  convinces  and  con- 
victs us  of  a  hopeless  other  thing.  In  demanding  of 
us  perfection  it  reveals  to  us  our  infinite  imperfection; 
in  demanding  life  it  only  teaches  us  the  meaning  and 
brings  home  to  us  the  fact  of  death.  And  yet  it  is 
impossible  for  the  law  to  require  of  us  anything  less 
than  absolute  righteousness  and  perfect  life ;  for  nothing 
less  is  in  fact  the  true  and  actual  norm  and  condition 
of  our  spiritual  being.  But  death  is  as  much  more 
than  only  a  moral  change  as  that  is  more  than  a  mere 
natural  change.  Death  is  not  yet  its  own  highest  self 
until  it  has  become  in  us  the  effectual  and  effective  act 
of  our  own  highest  selves.  It  is  not  itself  until  it  ap- 
pears in  us,  not  merely  as  a  moral  act  of  ourselves  but 
as  a  birth  and  a  becoming  of  something  other  and  more 
than  ourselves,  the  principle  and  power  in  us  of  all 
that  the  law  of  our  spirits  requires,  but  that  the  self- 
sufficiency  of  our  spirits  could  never  attain. 

If  there  were  never  any  sin,  the  death  of  mere  nature 
and  of  our  individual  and  separate  selves  or  selfhood 
would  have  still  been  a  necessity.  We  are  not  consti- 
tuted to  become  all  ourselves  in  mere  nature  or  in  only 
ourselves.  If  we  were,  we  should  be  quite  other  than, 
and  infinitely  short  of,  the  beings  that  we  actually  are. 
We  are  made  to  be  infinitely  more  than  mere  nature 
makes  us,  or  than  we  can  by  possibility  make  ourselves. 
Nature  was  made  deficient,  and  the  will  of  man  was 
made  insufficient  for  the  true  nature  and  destiny  of  our 
spiritual  manhood.  Our  insufficiency  is  our  greatness, 
our  poverty  is  our  wealth,  our  dependence  is  our  glory. 


22  High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

It  is  the  infinite  not-ourselves  that  alone  can  make  us 
the  infinitely  more  than  ourselves  which  is  our  only 
true  selves.  To  be  ourselves,  we  have  not  only  to 
transcend  nature  in  ourselves,  but  we  can  do  that  only 
by  transcending  ourselves  in  God.  Each  lower  has  to 
die  in  itself  and  to  be  taken  up  and  fulfilled  in  the 
next  higher.  Our  dead  selves  are  indeed  the  only 
stepping-stones  to  the  better  and  the  higher  which  is 
ever  before  us  until  we  come  to  God  Himself.  Only 
that  can  ascend  into  heaven  which  has  come  down 
from  heaven.  Except  God  humble  Himself  to  be  born 
in  us  we  can  never  be  exalted  to  sit  on  His  right  hand 
and  share  His  divine  life.  Death  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment, the  death  of  Christ,  the  death  which  we  must 
die  with  Christ,  is  no  mere  death  of  nat are,  it  is  a  death 
of  sin;  it  is  more  than  merely  the  death  of  sin,  it  is  the 
death  of  the  nature  in  which  we  cannot  but  sin,  and  of 
ourselves  who  cannot  but  sin  in  it;  the  birth  into  the 
nature  and  life  of  God  which  is  the  only  death  of  sin 
and  the  only  life  of  the  spirit. 


n 

THE  DIVINE  PROPRIETY   OF  THE  DEATH 
OF    CHRIST 

Hebrews  1-2 

The  process  of  human  salvation  in  Christ  is  exactly 
traced  and  defined  in  the  words  of  our  Epistle.  It  was 
proper  or  necessary  for  God,  in  bringing  us  all  to  glory, 
to  perfect  the  author  or  first  attainer  of  our  salvation 
through  sufferings,  including,  of  course,  in  order  to  be 
perfect,  the  supreme  and  extreme  suffering  of  death. 
"For,"  adds  the  Writer,  "both  He  that  sanctifieth  and 
they  that  are  sanctified  are  all  of  one."  Of  one  what? 
It  may  perfectly  well  include  the  meaning,  of  one 
human  extraction  and  nature,  of  one  human  need  and 
experience  of  salvation.  That  is  all  true,  because  our 
Lord  was  wholly  one  with  us,  not  only  in  our  common 
humanity  but  in  all  the  trial  and  victory  of  our  human 
life.  Or  it  might  include  this  meaning:  our  Lord  and 
we,  the  sanctified  and  the  Sanctifier,  are  all  of  God, 
of  one  Father  and  —  through  Him  —  of  one  realized 
and  accomplished  sonship  to  the  father.  This,  too,  is 
of  course  true,  and  as  true  as  the  other  to  the  general 
argument  we  are  following.  But  the  immediate  con- 
text and  connection  require  a  more  particular  meaning 
of  the  words.     The  Sanctifier  and  the  sanctified  are  all 

23 


24  High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

the  subjects  of  one  common  process  of  sanctification ; 
they  all  come  out  of  the  same  experience  of  suffering; 
they  are  all  sons  of  God  out  of  the  same  baptism  of 
blood,  out  of  the  same  new  birth  of  death  to  sin  and 
life  to  God.  As  it  is  said  of  the  Lord  it  is  said  of  all: 
He  was  determined,  or  born,  or  became  Son  of  God 
with  power,  according  to  the  spirit  of  holiness,  of,  or 
from,  or  out  of  resurrection  from  the  dead.  Both  of 
the  illustrations  that  follow  bear  out  this  interpre- 
tation. 

"For  which  cause  He  is  not  ashamed  to  call  them 
brethren,  saying,  I  will  declare  thy  name  unto  my 
brethren,  in  the  midst  of  the  congregation  will  I  sing 
thy  praise."  The  first  illustration  is  that  of  a  king, 
who,  after  the  type  of  David,  has  fought  and  won  his 
way  to  the  throne  through  trials  so  great  and  experi- 
ences so  deep  that  his  final  triumph  and  exaltation  are 
described  as  a  resurrection  from  the  dead.  And  his  - 
resurrection  and  ascension  are  not  his  own  only.  He 
brings  his  followers,  his  people,  with  him;  and  in  the 
midst  of  the  congregation,  or  public  assembly,  unites 
with  them  as  brethren  in  declaring  the  name  and  sing- 
ing the  praise  of  the  Source  of  their  common  salvation. 
The  incident  referred  to  was  of  course  the  temporal 
experience  of  an  earthly  king.  But  it  was  an  anointed, 
a  theocratic  king,  a  representative  of  God  in  the  affairs 
of  men.  The  language,  too,  applied  to  him,  the  ex- 
treme figures  of  death  and  resurrection,  was  that  of 
simple  poetical  hyperbole.  But  the  hyperboles  of  the 
flesh  are  the  letters  of  the  spirit;  the  types  and  shadows 


Divine  Propriety  of  Death  of  Christ     25 

of  the  actual  are  the  truths  and  facts  of  the  ideal  and 
the  real.  The  things  that  are  imperfectly  and  only 
rhetorically  true  of  all  God's  anointed  before  Him, 
are  the  simple  truth  of  Him  who  is  the  Anointing  as 
well  as  the  Anointed. 

"  And  again,  I  will  put  my  trust  in  Him.  And  again, 
Behold,  I  and  the  children  which  God  hath  given  me." 
The  second  illustration  is  from  the  experience  of  a 
prophet  who  stands  in  the  midst,  in  the  heart,  of  the 
people  as  the  symbol  and  medium  of  God's  presence 
with  them,  the  great  truth  of  Immanuel.  Great  judg- 
ments were  about  to  fall  upon  the  people  for  their  sins; 
they  were  to  pass  through  the  furnace  of  affliction  and 
be  consumed.  But  not  all;  there  was  to  be  a  remnant 
saved,  an  election  of  grace.  The  election  of  grace  is 
the  election  of  faith.  Faith  is  indestructible ;  for  where 
faith  is  God  is,  and  God  cannot  be  destroyed.  So  long 
as  the  great  truth  of  Immanuel  is  alive  in  the  soul  of 
man  or  people,  there  remains  something  which  is  im- 
perishable, which  like  the  gold  will  survive  the  heat 
of  the  extremest  furnace.  The  prophet  embodies  that 
fact  of  faith,  that  truth  of  Immanuel.  I,  he  says,  will 
put  my  trust  in  Him.  There  is  something  in  the  exact 
form  of  expression  which  we  can  scarcely  reproduce. 
He  is  speaking  before,  though  in  immediate  presence 
of,  the  judgment,  and  he  speaks  prophetically:  I,  says 
he,  when  the  judgment  comes  and  goes,  will  survive  it, 
for  I  shall  have,  I  will  have,  trusted  in  Him.  He 
identifies  himself  with  the  faith  which  will  survive  all 
judgments,  because  it  is  in   God  and  God  is  in   it. 


26  High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

And  not  only  so;  he  will  not  survive  alone;  God  will 
give  him  children  of  his  faith;  his  life  out  of  death  will 
bring  others  with  him.  Except  a  grain  of  wheat  fall 
into  the  earth  and  die,  it  abideth  by  itself  alone;  but  if 
it  die,  it  beareth  much  fruit.  Judgment  shall  come, 
but  a  remnant  shall  return,  for  —  Immanuel !  Behold, 
I  and  the  children  which  God  hath  given  me. 

"Because  the  children  were  partakers  of  flesh  and 
blood,  He  likewise  took  part  in,  or  of,  the  same."  A 
double  truth  is  clearly  expressed.  The  part  of  Jesus 
Christ  in  our  common  humanity  is  a  divine  participa- 
tion, a  participation  of  God,  in  it.  It  is  an  act  not  only 
of  literal  and  actual  divine  participation,  but  of  divine 
sympathy;  not  only  an  act  of  divine  being  but  an  act 
of  divine  suffering  with  us  in  a  common  nature  and 
under  a  common  condition.  That  is  the  first  truth, 
and  the  second  is  like  unto  it  and  a  necessary  part  of 
it:  the  participation  in  our  nature  and  our  sufferings 
was  as  real  a  human  participation  as  the  subject  of  it 
was  God  himself.  Nothing  short  of  that  is  the  whole 
mystery  or  the  whole  truth  of  the  Incarnation. 

The  end  and  purpose  of  the  participation  was,  that 
"  through  death  He  might  bring  to  nought  him  that 
had  the  power  of  death;  that  is,  the  devil;  and  might 
deliver  all  them  who  through  fear  of  death  were  all 
their  lifetime  subject  to  bondage."  This  brings  us 
face  to  face  with  the  whole  question  of  the  place  and 
part  of  death  in  human  experience,  and  of  the  act  of 
Jesus  Christ  in  reference  to  it,  in  a  more  profound 
way  than  we  have  yet  considered  it.     The  meaning 


Divine  Propriety  of  Death  of  Christ      27 

or  final  cause  of  death  is  to  be  interpreted  by  its  nor- 
mal, what  we  might  call  its  successful,  effects.  When 
the  seed  dies  and  through  death  lives  again  in  the  much 
fruit  it  bears,  it  is  legitimate  to  say  that  that  is  the 
meaning  and  truth  of  the  death  of  the  seed.  The  fact 
that  so  very  many  more  seeds  perish  without  living 
again  and  bearing  fruit  does  not  create  a  presumption 
on  the  other  side,  that  the  meaning  of  the  death  of  the 
seed  is  that  it  should  perish  without  resurrection.  As 
little  is  the  moral  death  which  we  all  undergo  always  a 
death  unto  life.  It  equally  may  be  a  death  unto  death. 
Unto  everlasting  death?  Why  not,  in  the  nature  and 
natural  operation  of  the  thing  itself  ?  As  far  as  we  can 
follow  them,  we  see  men  marring  instead  of  making 
themselves. 

St.  Paul  speaks  of  a  sorrow  that  is  unto  life,  a  godly 
sorrow  that  worketh  repentance  unto  salvation,  a  sor- 
row and  a  repentance  which  will  never  bring  regret. 
And  he  speaks  as  though  that  were  the  final  cause 
and  function  of  sorrow;  as  our  Lord  Himself  mani- 
festly does  when  He  makes  sorrow  one  of  the  first  con- 
ditions and  constituents  of  divine  blessedness.  But 
St.  Paul  speaks  also  of  another,  and  perhaps  a  very 
much  more  common,  sort  of  sorrow  which  he  calls 
the  sorrow  of  the  world,  and  which  worketh  death. 
Which  of  these  two  forms  expresses  the  true  meaning 
and  final  cause  of  sorrow?  We  all  have  the  larger 
hope  that  in  the  end  all  sorrow,  all  death  will  lead  up 
unto  life  and  blessedness.  But  it  is  a  hope  not  based 
upon  our  experience  so  far  as  it  has  yet  gone,  but  upon 


28  High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

an  instinctive  and  a  persistent  conviction  that  our  uni- 
verse is  a  universe  of  goodness,  and  that  therefore  good 
will  somehow  be  the  final  goal  of  ill.  As  yet  the  moral 
arena  in  which  we  are  all  fighting  the  battle  of  life  and 
determining  the  present  direction,  at  least,  of  our 
destinies  is  not  altogether  a  hopeful  spectacle.  If  a 
man's  sorrow  is  of  the  godly  sort,  a  sorrow  for  the 
proper  object,  the  sorrow  for  sin,  which  is  the  only 
evil;  which  is  only  a  negative  expression  of  the  love 
and  desire  for  holiness,  which  is  the  only  good,  — 
then  sorrow  in  him  is  discharging  its  normal  and 
proper  function.  And  such  a  sorrow  cannot  go  too 
far;  it  stops  short  of  its  appointed  end  so  long  as  the 
repentance  it  works  falls  short  of  a  repentance  unto 
salvation,  that  is  to  say,  unto  the  death  of  that  from 
which,  and  the  life  of  that  to  which,  we  would  be  saved. 
But  what  if  our  sorrow  and  our  death  are  not  of  the 
thing  in  us  that  ought  to  die  ?  What  if  we  are  sorrow- 
ing for  and  dying  to  the  wrong  things  ?  What  if  our 
daily  dying  is  not  to  the  things  that  are  not  life,  that 
are  destructive  of  life,  but  to  the  life  itself  and  all  the 
things  that  make  for  life  ?  There  is  a  death  that  is  the 
death  of  death  unto  the  life  of  life ;  and  there  is  another 
death  which  is  the  death  of  life  unto  the  life  of  death; 
we  cannot  get  rid  of  that  dual  character,  that  dual 
possibility  in  the  very  meaning  and  in  the  universal 
operation  of  death.  There  is  a  death  which  is  not 
death  but  life,  the  very  essential  energy  and  activity  of 
life.  And  there  is  a  death  which  is  so  death,  which  is 
so  the  contradiction  and  extinction  of  all  that  is  truly 


Divine  Propriety  of  Death  of  Christ      29 

life,  that,  the  direct  opposite  of  the  death  unto  life,  it 
is  the  death  of  life. 

The  truth  that  underlies  and  explains  all  this  ambi- 
guity in  terms  is  the  fact  that  spirit  or  personality  is 
in  its  very  nature  a  possibility  of  opposites :  not  a  pos- 
sibility of  uniting  or  harmonizing  the  opposites,  but  of 
holding  them  together,  of  —  as  it  were  —  being  both, 
until  in  the  all-important  trial  and  issue  of  life  we 
have  decided  between  them  which  we  shall  be,  and 
so  have  become  one  or  the  other.  There  is  an  Esau 
and  a  Jacob  or  Israel,  contending  together  for  inherit- 
ance and  possession,  in  the  womb  of  every  human  life. 
Shall  it  be  the  world  or  God  with  us;  acquiescence 
and  satisfaction  with  the  world,  or  wrestling  with  God 
through  the  darkness  of  the  long  night  of  life  here, 
until  we  have  prevailed  and  He  hath  blessed  us,  until 
we  come  out  no  longer  Jacob  the  supplanter  but  Israel 
the  prince;  or  rather  until  we  come  out  the  true  sup- 
planter,  the  rightful  inheritor,  the  spiritual  man  whose 
nature  and  destiny  it  is  to  succeed  and  displace  the 
natural  ?  There  is  a  war  within  us  unto  death.  There 
are  two  men  within  us  both  of  whom  cannot  survive; 
one  or  other  must  die.  The  double  question  with  us  is, 
with  which  do  we  identify  ourselves  now,  which  of  the 
two  shall  we  wholly  be  in  the  end  ?  The  man  of  the  flesh 
or  the  man  of  the  spirit ;  Christ  or  self  ?  It  is  only  in 
repentance  and  faith,  the  right  initial  attitude  towards 
sin  and  holiness,  that  we  can  say,  Not  I  but  Christ. 
It  is  only  in  the  completion  of  repentance  in  the  extinc- 
tion of  sin,  in  the  completion  of  faith  in  the  realization 


30  High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

of  holiness,  that  the  object  of  faith  in  Christ  for  us  can 
become  the  subject  of  fact  through  Christ  in  us. 

The  New  Testament,  implicitly  if  not  more  distinctly, 
discriminates  between  death  in  its  true  meaning  and 
function  and  death  in  its  perversion  and  degradation; 
just  as  it  discriminates  between  the  world  and  the 
flesh  in  their  truth  and  in  their  actual  falsity,  or  what 
we  call  their  fallen  character  and  condition.  Sin  is  the 
sting  and  poison  of  death,  as  of  everything  else  in  the 
nature  and  life  of  man.  Satan  is  spoken  of  as  having 
the  power  of  death,  just  as  he  is  called  the  prince  of 
this  world  and  is  described  as  ruling  in  the  children  of 
disobedience.  He  has  not  the  rightful  power,  any 
more  than  he  is  the  rightful  prince  or  ruler.  Death  in 
its  right  nature  and  intent  is  as  good  as  the  world  or 
man  as  they  came  from  the  hand  of  God.  The  right- 
ful lord  of  death  is  God,  the  rightful  power  of  death  is 
the  spirit  and  life  of  God. 

When  death  is  its  true  self,  which  is  life,  through 
its  being  the  death  of  everything  that  is  counter  to 
life,  that  is  of  all  the  enemies  of  life,  as  Christ's  death 
was,  then  it  is  God  who  is  the  Lord  of  it,  and  His 
Spirit  and  life  that  are  the  power  of  it.  If  another 
and  opposite  of  God  is  actually,  not  rightfully,  lord 
of  it;  and  if  another  and  different  spirit  than  His  is 
the  power  and  character  of  it,  and  instead  of  being 
the  death  of  everything  else  unto  life  it  is  the  death 
of  life  itself,  then  may  we  indeed  speak  of  the  sting 
and  corruption  of  death  through  sin.  And  then  in- 
deed is  death  the  supreme  evil,  a  thing  to  be  abolished, 


Divine  Propriety  of  Death  of  Christ      31 

the  last  enemy  which  shall  be  destroyed.  If  God  be  the 
Lord  of  death,  and  of  death  as  the  very  act  in  us  and 
the  act  by  us  of  life,  the  act  in  which  we  die  to  all  that 
is  not  life,  who  shall  fear  it  ?  If  God  be  not  the  Lord 
of  death,  but  the  devil;  if  the  sting  and  poison  of  sin  is 
in  it;  if  it  is  the  death  in  us  of  all  life,  and  the  power 
and  life  in  us  of  all  the  enemies  of  life,  of  all  that  con- 
tradicts the  truth  and  beauty  and  goodness  and  blessed- 
ness of  life,  —  then  may  we  justly  fear  and  dread  it, 
then  are  we  indeed  all  our  lifetime  subject  to  a  bondage 
for  redemption  from  which  we  want  all  the  power  and 
love  of  God  to  save  us  —  for  salvation  from  which  we 
have  nothing  else  to  look  to  but  the  infinite  love  and  the 
perfect  power  of  God. 

Jesus  Christ  is  that  perfect  love  and  that  infinite 
power  of  God  unto  our  salvation.  The  grace  of  the 
Son  is  the  love  and  power  of  the  Father  incarnate ;  that 
is  to  say  in  actual  operation  and  manifestation  in  the 
visible  process  of  human  salvation.  In  Him  we  see 
God  saving  in  the  actual  process  and  in  the  manifest 
result  of  man  saved.  In  Him  we  see  not  only  God  in 
man  but  man  in  God, Prince  and  Lord  of  death  and  life. 
The  woman's  seed  has  bruised  the  serpent's  head; 
the  seed  and  heir  of  Abraham's  faith  has  inherited  the 
earth.  Not  of  angels  doth  He  take  hold,  but  He  taketh 
hold  of  the  seed  of  Abraham.  The  conquest  of  the 
world,  as  we  are  to  see  in  the  next  chapter,  is  the  con- 
quest of  faith.  But  there  is  something  more  to  be  said 
in  completion  of  that  part  of  the  subject  upon  which 
we  are  at  present. 


32  High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

"  Wherefore  it  behoved  Him  in  all  things  to  be  made 
like  unto  His  brethren,  that  He  might  be  (might  be- 
come) a  merciful  and  faithful  high  priest  in  things 
pertaining  to  God,  to  make  propitiation  for  the  sins 
of  the  people.  For  in  that  He  Himself  hath  suffered 
being  tempted,  He  is  able  to  succour  them  that  are 
tempted."  Wherefore  —  that  is,  in  recapitulation  of 
the  argument  of  these  first  two  chapters  which  we  have 
been  considering ;  —  the  Writer  proceeds  to  restate  the 
matter  under  the  figures  and  in  the  terms  in  which  it 
is  his  purpose  in  the  Epistle  to  discuss  with  his  Hebrew 
compatriots  the  office  and  work  of  our  Lord  in  our 
human  salvation,  Christ  our  High  Priest  and  our 
Sacrifice.  The  end  of  both  the  office  and  the  function 
was  to  make  propitiation  for  the  sins  of  the  people. 
Our  Author  is  entirely  at  one  with  St.  John,  St.  Paul, 
and  the  mind  of  the  whole  New  Testament,  as  regards 
the  end  and  result  of  the  Incarnation.  Jesus  Christ 
is,  before  anything  else  in  our  consummated  salvation, 
the  Lamb  of  God  that  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world. 
We  know  that  He  was  manifested  to  take  away  sin. 
The  first  enemy  that  He  destroys  is  sin,  as  the  last  is 
all  the  accumulated  consequence  of  sin,  eternal  death. 
In  our  Epistle,  at  the  beginning  the  whole  work  of  our 
Lord  in  the  flesh  was  expressed  in  the  words,  When 
He  had,  for  humanity  in  His  person,  made  purification 
of  sins,  He  sat  down  on  the  right  hand  of  the  Majesty 
on  high. 

The  expression  "  to  make  propitiation  for  sins " 
will  be  deepened  and  broadened  in  meaning  through 


Divine  Propriety  of  Death  of  Christ     33 

the  entire  course  of  the  argument  before  us.  It  is 
simply  used  here,  without  explanation  or  interpretation. 
Before  coming  to  our  Author's  own  exposition,  let  us 
give  some  preliminary  reflection  of  our  own  to  the  use 
of  this  and  kindred  expressions  as  applied  to  the  essen- 
tial and  necessary  work  of  religion  accomplished  for  us 
by  Jesus  Christ.  The  idea  and  truth  underlying  all 
these  expressions  is  that  of  peace,  peace  accomplished 
or  restored,  —  reconciliation,  at-one-ment,  propitiation, 
being  brought  near  to,  or  back  into  grace  and  favour. 
The  enmity  of  sin,  the  enmity  which  sin  is  and  breeds, 
is  a  universal  fact,  if  not  of  our  nature,  yet  of  our 
actual  condition  and  of  our  life  as  it  is  in  the  flesh  and 
in  the  world.  It  is  part  of  the  characteristic  common 
sense  or  wisdom  of  Bishop  Butler  to  remark,  that  how- 
ever interesting  such  questions  may  be  in  the  way  of 
speculation,  our  real  or  practical  business  in  the  world 
is  not  to  question  why  things  are  as  they  are,  but, 
seeing  that  things  are  what  they  are,  to  ascertain  what 
is  to  be  done  about  them.  Even  the  speculative  ques- 
tion of  the  why  of  sin  itself  is,  I  believe,  made  increas- 
ingly clear  to  us  in  our  increasing  experience  of  the 
holiness  and  life  of  Christ.  As  the  Devil  himself,  in 
the  hands  of  Him  who  makes  the  wrath  of  angel  as  of 
man  to  praise  Him,  is  converted  despite  himself  into  a 
ministering  spirit,  sent  forth  to  minister  salutary  trial 
and  discipline  to  those  who  shall  be  heirs  of  salvation ; 
so  even  sin  too  is  to  be  accounted  one  of  the  all  things 
which  God  shall  work  together,  or  make  work  together, 
for  good  to  them  that  love  Him. 
4 


34  High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

There  is  no  use  to  stop  to  argue  about  either  the 
fact  or  the  meaning  of  sin.  It  is  a  matter  of  the 
common  experience  of  every  man  who  knows  any- 
thing of  holiness,  just  as  no  one  is  ignorant  of  the 
fact  or  meaning  of  vice  but  he  who  is  not  sufficiently 
morally  developed  to  know  the  meaning  of  virtue. 
Both  of  these  distinctions  are  indeed  an  evolution, 
as  everything  else  is  in  human  nature  and  life.  St. 
Paul  traces  for  us  the  age-long  development  under 
the  law  of  the  sense  or  consciousness  of  sin  and  holi- 
ness. But  these  are  race  or  human  growths  or  evo- 
lutions, which  we  must  regard  as  so  far  accomplished. 
We  must  take  humanity  as  it  is  at  this  present  stage 
of  its  progress  or  development,  and  we  have  a  right 
to  say  that  the  man  who  is  now  without  the  sense  or 
consciousness  of  the  distinction,  in  himself  and  in  all 
others,  between  sin  and  holiness,  as  of  that  between 
vice  and  virtue,  is  one  belated  in  his  spiritual  and 
moral  development. 

Sin  then  is  a  fact,  and  it  is  an  enmity;  it  is  in  its 
very  nature  and  essence  an  enmity  —  against  God, 
because  against  ourselves  and  everything  else.  As  love 
is  the  only  actual  or  possible  spiritual  bond  of  perfect- 
ness,  the  only  principle  or  condition  of  perfect  personal 
relationship  and  association,  and  love  is  holiness,  and 
love  is  God;  so  enmity  or  hate,  in  any  of  its  varieties  or 
gradations  of  form  or  expression,  is  the  contradictory 
of  love  and  of  God,  is  sin,  is  the  devil.  What  we  are, 
we  are  in  relation  and  association,  with  God,  nature, 
and  one  another;  what  perfects  this  relation  and  asso- 


Divine  Propriety  of  Death  of  Christ      35 

ciation  perfects  us,  and  is  holiness;  and  holiness  is  a 
spirit,  it  is  the  Spirit  and  nature  and  life  of  God;  just 
as  what  mars  the  perfectness  of  that  relation  and 
association  mars  and  ruins  us,  and  is  sin;  and  sin,  too, 
is  a  spirit,  the  spirit  and  nature  of  him  who  wields  the 
power  of  not  life,  but  death.  We  can  see  then  how 
the  essence  and  condition  of  salvation  is  peace,  recon- 
ciliation, at-one-ment;  how  that  carries  with  it  every- 
thing else  that  enters  into  the  composition  of  salvation, 
of  life  and  blessedness. 

When  we  speak  of  peace  with  God  we  mean  real 
peace  and  whole  peace;  we  mean  the  removal  of  all 
that  stands  in  the  way  of  that  peace.  And  all  that 
stands  in  the  way  of  it  is  sin.  Our  Lord  was  mani- 
fested to  take  away  sin,  and  He  took  it  away,  and  takes 
it  away.  God  sent  His  Son  in  the  likeness  of  the  flesh 
of  sin  and  ^pl  a(xxxpTta<i,  for  or  about  sin.  That  is 
the  one  question  or  issue  in  human  life  and  destiny: 
What  about  sin?  What  is  to  be  done  about  it,  by 
God  and  ourselves?  For  it  lies  between  us  and  Him; 
between  us  and  our  holiness,  our  righteousness,  our 
blessedness,  our  life,  all  of  which  are  He  and  He  alone. 
When  we  speak  in  this  way  of  sin  and  the  necessity, 
the  blessedness,  the  salvation  of  its  taking  away,  we  do 
not,  we  cannot,  mean  anything  else  or  less  than  all 
these  things  of  sin  itself.  It  is  not  the  imputation 
merely,  or  the  condemnation,  or  the  penalty  or  conse- 
quences of  sin  from  which  we  are  thinking  or  talking 
of  being  saved.  It  is  the  sin  itself;  that  is  the  evil 
from  which  alone  is  salvation,  and  all  the  salvations 


36  High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

short  of  that  are  only  bits  and  parts  and  stages  of 
salvation.  The  only  conditions  of  a  real  peace  are  the 
removal  of  all  the  causes  which  render  peace  impossible, 
because  they  constitute  enmity. 

It  would  seem  to  follow  from  the  above  reasoning 
that  the  only  way  to  be  reconciled  and  at  peace  with 
God  is  to  be  purified  and  free  from  sin.  Absolutely 
and  ultimately  that  is  so.  But  what  is  true  in  the  end 
is  reversed  in  the  process.  And  that  reversal  is  just 
the  essential  distinction  between  the  method  of  law 
and  works  on  one  side  and  that  of  gospel  and  grace 
on  the  other.  The  method  of  law  is  that  we  are  recon- 
ciled by  being  purified  or  pure,  the  method  of  grace 
is  that  we  are  purified  through  being  first  reconciled. 
But  how  in  the  nature  of  the  thing  can  we  be  truly 
reconciled  and  at  one  prior  to  being  purged  of  that 
which  constitutes  the  enmity?  It  is  St.  Paul's  great 
question,  How  can  we  be  justified  prior  to  being  just  ? 
How  can  God  call  or  accept  that  which  is  not  as  though 
it  were  ?  The  real  and  immediate  question  then  in  the 
actual  process  of  our  salvation  is,  how  shall  we  as 
sinners  and  despite  our  sin  be  brought  into  such  rela- 
tion and  association  with  God  as  that  that  union  and 
communion  with  Him  shall  constitute  and  effect  our 
purification  from  sin  ?  These  things  cannot  be  accom- 
plished mechanically,  or  by  the  exercise  of  any  kind 
of  mere  power  upon  us  from  without.  They  must  take 
place  in  our  own  personal  life  processes,  and  in  accord- 
ance with  the  laws  of  free  spiritual  and  moral  change 
within. 


Divine  Propriety  of  Death  of  Christ     37 

The  process  of  grace  briefly  traced  is  as  follows: 
The  first  step  is,  under  the  natural  operation  of  the 
law  without  and  development  of  the  spirit  within,  to 
bring  the  consciousness  to  a  sense  of  the  fact  and  the 
nature  of  sin.  The  next  is,  in  the  inevitable  struggle 
in  the  developed  consciousness  between  sin  and  the 
awakened  spirit  of  holiness,  to  develop  the  experience 
of  the  deficiency  of  nature  and  the  insufficiency  of  self 
for  the  real  purposes  of  life;  and  so,  in  the  next  place, 
the  sense  of  need,  the  principle  of  dependence  upon 
the  one  Source,  the  only  and  all  sufficient  Power  of  life. 
This  is  as  far  as  religion  before  Christ  could  go.  What 
Christianity  has  of  specific  and  definite  addition  to 
make  to  all  religion  before  it,  is  the  actual  revelation, 
the  demonstration  and  manifestation  of,  not  only  a 
possible,  but  the  accomplished  real  reconciliation  of 
God  and  man  for  which  all  that  went  before  was  but 
the  natural  preparation.  The  reconciliation  in  Christ 
Himself  is  a  real  reconciliation,  the  condemnation  and 
death  in  the  flesh  of  all  that  separates  between  God 
and  man.  But  the  reconciliation  which  in  Christ 
is  fact,  is  in  us  only  faith.  It  is  faith  in  us,  because, 
in  the  first  place,  we  see  in  Christ  the  meaning,  the 
reason,  the  truth  of  the  thing  revealed;  and  not  only 
the  truth,  but  the  beauty  and  the  good;  and  not  only 
these,  but  the  imperative  obligation,  the  absolute 
necessity  of  it  to  ourselves.  Jesus  Christ  is  the  inevi- 
table end  and  all  to  every  one  who  sees  and  knows 
Him.  And  Jesus  Christ  is  God's  Word  not  only  of 
truth  but  of  promise  and  of  power,  of  realization  and 


38         High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

fulfilment,  of  redemption  and  completion,  to  every 
man  to  whom  that  Word  effectually  utters  itself. 
What  a  warning  there  is  in  that  saying  of  our  Lord, 
Take  heed  how  ye  hear! 

This  then  is  the  status  of  the  sinner  with  God: 
he  is  not  holy  in  fact,  but  he  is  holy  in  faith;  and 
his  holiness  in  faith  is  God's  effectual  way  of  making 
him  holy  in  fact.  He  is  one  with  God,  or  at  one 
with  God,  because  all  that  as  yet  he  infinitely  is  not, 
he  wholly  believes  and  loves  and  means;  and  all 
that  he  so  means  he  is  in  principle,  and  will  be  in 
effect.  The  present  relation  of  the  soul  to  God,  then, 
and  the  relation  to  Him  with  special  and  specific 
reference  to  the  still  existing  fact  of  sin  in  us,  is  naturally 
the  central  and  all-absorbing  present  question  of  the 
spirit.  He  is  most  in  the  mind  of  the  Gospel  of  Jesus 
Christ  who,  the  most  conscious  of  all  the  infinite  that 
he  is  not  in  himself,  is  the  most  confident  and  assured 
of  the  complete  and  perfect  that  he  is  in  Christ,  that  is 
to  say,  in  faith.  That  is  the  sense  in  which  Jesus 
Christ  takes  away  our  sins  before  even  we  have  had 
time  to  more  than  begin  the  putting  them  away  our- 
selves, and  makes  us  wholly  at  one  with  God  while  yet 
we  are  at  all  our  own  infinite  distance  from  Him.  By 
having  reconciled  us  in  Himself,  He  now  purifies  or 
cleanses  us  in  ourselves;  or  in  the  commoner  language 
of  theology,  having  justified  us  by  His  own  act  of  grace, 
He  sanctifies  us  through  our  own  act  in  Him  of  faith. 

The  condition  of  our  Lord's  taking  away  our  sin 
was  that  He  should  Himself  be  our  high  priest;  and 


Divine  Propriety  of  Death  of  Christ      39 

the  condition  of  His  being  our  high  priest  was  that  He 
should  be  one  with  us  in  all  our  human  nature  and 
human  condition.  He  must  be  truly  in  our  place,  if 
He  would  truly  accomplish  our  task.  The  point  so 
far  is  that  what  He  was  and  did  was  determined  and 
defined  by  the  task  to  be  accomplished;  and  what  the 
task  was  was  dependent  upon  what  we  were  and  our 
condition.  But  the  deeper  point  still  lies  in  a  yet 
deeper  fact,  which  is  involved  if  not  expressed  in  the 
passage  before  us.  The  task,  we  agree,  was  the  undoing 
or  doing  away  with  sin.  Now  why  was  it  proper  or 
befitting,  if  not  necessary,  for  God  in  doing  away  with 
sin  to  do  it  by  so  supreme  and  extreme  an  act  as  that 
of  incarnation  and  crucifixion  ?  And,  I  repeat  that 
when  I  say  necessary,  I  do  not  mean  necessity  in  God 
making  the  thing  so,  but  necessity  in  the  thing's  being 
what  and  as  God  has  made  it.  Sin  being  what  it  is, 
or  rather  holiness  being  what  it  is,  and  sin  merely  its 
negation  or  contradiction,  why  could  sin  be  done  away, 
and  holiness  restored  and  established,  by  God  himself 
in  us,  only  by  an  incarnation  and  a  crucifixion  ?  Of 
course  I  shall  not  pretend  to  answer  all  that  question; 
but  I  will  undertake  to  say  something  in  explanation 
of  it. 

Let  us  consider,  somewhat  in  their  reverse  order, 
the  points  involved  in  these  two  closing  verses.  What- 
ever our  Lord  accomplished  or  became  in  our  flesh  or 
nature  is  most  intimately  and  inseparably  connected 
with  what  we  become  through  Him  in  it.  There  is 
nothing  said  or  implied  of  an  act  performed  or  of  a 


40  High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

becoming  accomplished,  apart  from  or  instead  of  us. 
He  is  the  expression  to  us  of  what  we  have  to  accom- 
plish and  become,  and  of  the  divine  power  and  way  of 
our  accomplishing  and  becoming  it.  Inasmuch  as  He 
Himself  has  accomplished  holiness  and  attained  life, 
and  reveals  to  us  and  imparts  to  us  the  way  and  the 
power  of  holiness  and  life,  He  is  able  to  succour  and 
help,  even  unto  salvation,  all  those  who  have  to  accom- 
plish holiness  and  attain  life.  He  does  not  save  them 
from  having  to  do  it  all;  He  helps  and  enables  them  to 
do  it  all.  It  was  bound  to  be  so,  it  could  not  be  other- 
wise, because  in  the  divine  intention  and  meaning  and 
nature  of  the  thing,  the  accomplishing  holiness  and 
achieving  or  attaining  life  is  just  that  which  makes 
and  constitutes  us  personal  spirits,  or  spiritual  persons. 

If  God  has  made  us  rational  and  free;  if  He  has  en- 
dowed us  with  a  personality  whose  essence  consists  in 
our  own  self-accomplishment  and  becoming,  then  none 
other,  not  even  God,  can  accomplish  or  become  for 
or  instead  of  us.  God  Himself  in  our  salvation  can 
only  help  or  enable  us  to  accomplish  and  become  our- 
selves. And  herein  is  the  paradox  or  anomaly  of  God, 
in  this  Epistle,  being  spoken  of  as  able  —  or,  as  we  shall 
see,  enabled  —  to  succour  and  help  us  in  the  matter 
of  our  personal  salvation.  We  only  can  work  it  out, 
but  He  can  work  in  us  to  will  and  to  do  of  His  good 
pleasure. 

I  need  not  repeat  what  has  been  sufficiently  insisted 
upon  in  other  connections,  that  the  salvation  which 
God  and  our  own  spiritual  personalities  impose  upon 


Divine  Propriety  of  Death  of  Christ     41 

us  the  necessity  of  working  out  for  ourselves  can  con- 
sist in  no  other  than  one  specific  and  definite  thing. 
The  Cross,  as  our  own  personal  death  to  sin  and  the 
world,  and  life  in  and  to  God  and  holiness;  the  Cross 
as  our  accomplished  repentance  unto  the  only  limit  of 
death  to  sin,  and  as  our  victory  of  faith  unto  the  perfect 
limit  of  an  actual  and  attained  life  of  God,  what  else 
or  other  than  the  Cross  of  Christ  can  be  the  way  by 
which  we  may  come  to  God  ?  As  there  is  none  other 
Name  or  Personality  under  heaven  wherein,  so  neither 
is  there  any  other  act  whereby,  we  may  be  saved,  save 
the  one  act  of  the  One  Person  who  as  God  in  man  and 
man  in  God  is  able  to  make  His  death  our  death  and 
His  life  our  life. 

I  spoke  of  the  anomaly  of  God's  being  described  as 
able,  or  even  as  enabled,  to  help  us  in  the  task  of  our 
salvation.  By  the  fact  of  His  having  been  as  one  of 
us  tempted  and  saved,  He  is  able  to  help  under  tempta- 
tion and  to  enable  unto  salvation  those  who  are  under- 
going the  experience  of  salvation  through  suffering  or 
temptation.  There  is  a  reference,  silent  for  us,  in  the 
very  tense  of  the  verb  used  just  above,  "  to  make  pro- 
pitiation," to  the  inseparable  connection  of  Christ's 
and  our  own  act  of  self-reconciliation  with  God.  The 
use  of  the  present  tense,  instead  of  the  aorist,  expresses 
the  fact  that  Christ's  single,  and  once-for-all  com- 
pleted, act  of  (on  the  part  of  humanity)  self-recon- 
ciliation or  at-one-ment  with  God,  is  continuously 
being  re-enacted  in  and  by  us,  as  we  by  His  enabling 
grace  and  aid  are  enduring  temptation  and  attaining 


42  High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

victory,   are    dying    His    death    and    rising    into    His 
life. 

Let  us  in  all  reverence,  and  keeping  closely  to  the 
sense  of  possible  and  impossible  which  I  have  more 
than  once  limited  and  defined,  ask  ourselves  and  en- 
deavour seriously  to  answer  this  question :  Things  being 
as  God  has  made  and  has  revealed  them,  and  as  now 
we  know  they  are,  how  otherwise  than  He  has  done 
could  God  have  become  to  us  the  salvation  that  He  is  ? 
That  is  to  say,  how  otherwise  could  His  love  and  His 
grace  have  entered  into  us  and  become  our  salvation, 
our  holiness  and  righteousness,  our  eternal  life  and 
our  divine  blessedness  ?  Can  we  now  conceive  of  God's 
saving  us  from  a  distance  by  a  word  or  act  of  power? 
Or  by  what  intermediate  act  or  process,  shall  we  say, 
between  that  extreme  on  one  side  and,  on  the  other, 
the  extreme  of  the  Incarnation,  the  divine  mystery  of 
His  self-identification  with  us,  of  His  becoming  one  with 
us  to  make  us,  that  is,  to  enable  us  to  become,  one 
with  Himself,  to  make  our  minds,  our  hearts,  our  wills, 
our  lives,  ourselves,  His  ?  There  is  now  no  longer  any 
possible  meaning  or  end  of  religion  but  Incarnation. 
There  is  no  task  or  function  of  Incarnation  but  human 
redemption  and  salvation.  There  is  no  salvation  but 
the  cross  of  Christ,  by  which  alone  we  are  dead  to  sin, 
and  the  world  and  the  flesh  of  sin,  and  alive  unto  holi- 
ness and  the  Father  and  Spirit  of  holiness. 


Ill 

THE  HIGH  CALLING  OF  GOD  TO  FAITH 

Hebrews  3-4 

"  Wherefore,  holy  brethren,  partakers  of  a  heavenly 
calling,  consider  the  Apostle  and  High  Priest  of  our 
confession,  Jesus!"  Our  heavenly  calling!  —  St.  Paul 
speaks  of  it  as  our  high  calling,  our  call  upward  or 
above;  and  he  prays  that  the  eyes  of  our  heart  may  be 
enlightened,  that  we  may  know  what  is  the  hope  of 
our  calling,  what  the  riches  of  the  glory  of  our  inherit- 
ance. The  subject  of  the  two  chapters  we  are  now  to 
consider  is  mainly  our  calling  and  destination  in  Jesus 
Christ,  our  own  attitude  and  relation  to  the  call,  and 
especially  the  condition  and  means  of  our  final  attain- 
ing it. 

Let  us  consider,  first,  Jesus  as  the  Apostle,  the 
messenger  and  bearer  to  us,  of  the  heavenly  call,  the 
call  from  above  and  the  call  to  what  is  above.  The 
Gospel  of  God  is  primarily  a  call,  a  call  upon  us  and 
upon  all  that  is  in  us,  a  call  of  God  expressly  designed 
and  calculated  or  fitted  to  bring  out  in  response  to  it 
all  that,  in  thought,  feeling,  and  action,  all  that  in  life, 
character,  and  destiny  most  truly  and  most  fully  deter- 
mines and  constitutes  ourselves. 

Jesus  Christ  is  God's  address  and  appeal  to  our 
43 


44         High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

intelligence,  our  understanding,  our  reason.  He  is 
God's  truth  to  us  of  ourselves;  He  is  all  that  we  our- 
selves mean,  and  are  alike  destined  by  our  nature  and 
predestined  by  God  to  become.  There  is  no  other 
interpretation  of  human  nature,  nor  justification  of 
human  life  and  condition,  nor  realization  of  human 
destiny,  than  that  revealed  to  us  in  the  person  of  our 
Lord.  The  message,  invitation,  and  appeal  of  Jesus 
Christ  to  us  is  that  of  the  meaning,  truth,  and  reality 
of  ourselves.  To  know  Him  is  the  highest  act  and 
perfection  of  human  reason. 

Jesus  Christ  is  God's  appeal  too  to  our  heart,  our 
affections.  We  are  constituted  by  our  nature  not  only 
to  know  but  to  love;  we  are  more  the  creatures  of  our 
hearts  than  of  our  heads.  It  is  our  feelings,  affections, 
desires,  rather  than  our  thoughts  or  knowledge  that 
determine  our  wills  and  our  acts.  The  heart  has  its 
proper  object  in  the  supremely  beautiful  or  lovable,  as 
well  as  the  head  in  the  supremely  true.  It  is  the 
death  of  all  perfection  to  stop  upon  that  which  is  less 
than  perfect.  Aristotle  teaches  us  that  the  end  of  the 
happy  life  is  not  to  limit  or  deny  pleasure  or  desire, 
but  to  place  it,  to  find  our  pleasure  in,  to  fix  our  desire 
upon,  the  perfect  and  blessed  object.  Christianity  is 
the  complete  satisfaction  of  love,  as  well  as  the  perfect 
knowledge  of  truth. 

The  appeal  to  our  intelligence  and  our  affections  is 
necessarily  the  appeal  to  our  wills,  to  our  personal  acts 
and  activities,  to  our  life  and  character,  to  all  that  in 
its  totality  makes  and  constitutes  us.     God's  call  to  us 


The  High  Calling  of  God  45 

in  Jesus  Christ  is  a  call  to  manhood  and  selfhood,  to 
self-realization  and  completion. 

The  content  of  God's  call  is  the  object  of  our  faith; 
it  becomes  our  calling,  our  profession  or  confession. 
By  the  grace  of  God  we  call  ourselves  what  He  calls  us, 
we  profess  ourselves  what  He  declares  us,  we  confess 
and  acknowledge  His  meaning  of  us  to  be  our  meaning, 
His  end  of  us  our  end.  And  Jesus  Christ  is  not  merely 
the  divine  message  or  expression  to  us  of  that  call  and 
calling;  He  is  more  than  the  mere  meaning,  He  is  the 
promise,  the  power,  the  fulfilment  of  it.  Faith  holds 
already  all  these  in  possession.  Nothing  can  either 
disappoint  or  defeat  faith ;  if  anything  either  disappoints 
or  defeats  it,  it  is  only  an  exposure  of  the  fact  that  what 
professed  to  be  faith  was  not  faith.  Jesus  Christ  as 
Himself  the  author  and  finisher,  the  realization  and 
completion,  of  our  faith,  is  Himself  also  the  divine 
expression  and  expresser,  fulfiller  and  fulfilment,  of 
our  heavenly  calling  and  confession. 

Apostle  and  High  Priest  of  our  confession!  All  the 
truth  of  what  Jesus  is  in  us  and  for  us  in  our  heavenly 
calling  is  more  and  more  to  be  concentrated  into  the 
fact  of  His  high  priesthood.  It  is  in  His  perfect  identi- 
fication with  us  in  nature  and  condition,  in  His  perfect 
similarity  of  experience  and  sympathy  in  temptation, 
finally  in  His  achievement  or  attainment  of  the  perfect 
end  of  death  to  sin  and  life  to  God,  —  it  is  in  these  that 
His  relation  to  ourselves  and  His  part  in  our  destinies 
find  their  perfect  fulfilment  and  expression. 

There  may  be  something  in  the  suggestion  that  Jesus, 


46         High  Priesthood  and  Saciifice 

as  Apostle  and  High  Priest,  was  both  Moses  and  Aaron 
to  the  Church  of  the  New  Testament.  Attention  has 
already  been  called  to  the  contrast  as  well  as  comparison 
between  Moses  and  Jesus  as  over  the  house  of  God  in 
their  respective  dispensations.  Moses  is  identified  with 
the  house  itself,  though  the  highest  in  it.  Jesus,  though 
Himself  too  in  and  of  the  house  and  the  head  of  it,  is 
identified  not  with  the  house  as  part  of  it,  but  with 
Him  who  is  over  the  house  as  builder  and  disposer  of 
it.  It  is  the  older  and  larger  question,  which  I  have 
somewhere  elaborated:  Whether  our  Lord  in  His  eter- 
nal living  and  vital  relation  to  creation  or  nature,  as  its 
ideal  principle,  its  final  and  efficient  cause,  is  to  be 
identified  with  creation  or  with  Creator;  whether  in 
His  incarnate  relation  to  humanity,  in  His  act  or  work 
of  human  redemption  and  completion,  He  is  to  be 
classed  as  man  or  as  God.  The  question,  as  I  have 
said,  runs  implicitly  through  all  our  Epistle,  and  there 
is  no  doubt  of  what  part  the  Writer  is.  He  who  always 
and  everywhere,  in  nature  and  in  grace,  as  head  and 
author  alike  of  natural  and  spiritual  creation,  of  Church 
and  world,  who  manifests  Himself  as  cause  and  not 
mere  expression  of  all  that  He  is  and  does,  as  creator 
as  well  as  creature,  as  sanctifier  as  well  as  sanctified, 
He  must  necessarily  be  classed  in  His  higher  rather 
than  in  His  lower  category,  however  truly  He  may  be 
the  unity  of  both. 

But  there  is  a  further  question  in  the  distinction  made 
between  the  servant  in  the  house,  Moses,  and  the  Son 
over  the  house,  Jesus.     I  have  no  hesitation  in  affirming 


The  High  Calling  of  God  47 

that  the  New  Testament  assumes  not  only,  of  course, 
the  eternal  personal  pre-existence  of  our  Lord,  but  His 
eternal  sonship  in  Himself  to  the  Father.  Our  Lord  is 
not  only  eternal  Logos  but  He  is  eternal  Son  of  God. 
But  I  am  equally  sure  that  the  sonship  with  which  we 
have  ordinarily  to  do  in  this  Epistle  and  in  the  New 
Testament  generally  is  the  sonship  of  man  attained  or 
acquired  in  His  person  and  by  His  act;  that  is  to  say, 
it  is  not  the  sonship  eternally  possessed  by  Kim  as 
God,  but  the  sonship  temporally  created  or  accom- 
plished by  Him  as  man.  It  is  as  man  become  son  of 
God  by  a  supreme  act  of  redeemed  and  completed 
manhood  that  He  was  raised  higher  than  the  angels. 
However  true  it  is  that  it  is  only  through  the  higher 
essential  or  divine  sonship  that  the  lower  communicated 
or  human  sonship  was  possible,  —  in  other  words,  that 
our  human  sonship  is  but  an  incarnation  or  impartation 
of  divine  sonship,  —  certain  it  is,  that  even  in  the  person 
of  our  Lord  Himself  the  communicated  or  constituted 
human  sonship  is  much  more  the  subject-matter  of 
the  Gospel  than  the  communicating  and  constituting 
divine  sonship.  The  one  is  indeed  always  presup- 
posed and  involved,  but  it  is  the  other  which  is 
traced  for  us  in  all  the  details  of  its  process.  The 
constitutive  principle  is,  of  course,  higher  than  the 
constituted  act  or  fact,  but  it  is  the  constituted  fact 
of  our  own  accomplished  sonship  in  the  person  of 
our  Lord  that  is  more  immediately  our  part  and  that 
it  more  immediately  concerns  us  to  learn.  Not  how 
our  Lord  was  Son  as  God,  but  how  He  became  Son 


48         High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

as  man,  is  the  subject  of  this  whole  Epistle  to  the 
Hebrews. 

I  may  go  a  step  farther  and  say  that  there  is  a 
latent  contrast,  as  between  Moses  and  Jesus  them- 
selves, so  also  between  their  respective  dispensations, 
or  their  representative  relations  to  humanity.  The 
law  was  given  through  Moses,  grace  and  truth  came 
—  became,  or  came  about  —  through  Jesus  Christ. 
Moses  is  the  given  Law,  Jesus  Christ  is  the  come 
Life.  Humanity  as  represented  by  Moses  is  servant 
in  God's  house;  humanity  as  represented  by,  rather 
as  realized  in,  Jesus  Christ  is  son  in  the  Father's 
house.  We  are  no  longer  subjects  under  a  law  without 
us,  we  are  the  subjects  of  the  law  within  us.  God  has 
given  us  in  our  Lord  to  have  life  in  ourselves.  He  that 
believeth  in  me,  says  Jesus,  out  of  his  belly  shall  flow 
rivers  of  living  waters ;  he  shall  be  a  source  of  life  within 
himself;  the  life  of  God  shall  be  his  own  life.  That, 
as  we  saw,  is  what  was  meant  by  God's  speaking  to  us 
no  longer  through  prophets  but  in  a  Son.  The  prophet 
mediates  to  us  God's  word  or  law;  the  Son  mediates 
God's  self,  God's  life. 

And  now  comes  in  another  great  truth,  the  interpre- 
tation of  another  part  in  the  figure  of  the  house.  We 
have  seen  what  Jesus  is  in  the  house  or  to  the  house; 
what  are  we  ?  We  are  the  house :  Whose  house  are  we, 
says  the  Apostle.  The  house,  or  elsewhere  the  taber- 
nacle or  the  temple,  is  that  in  the  which  it  pleases 
God  to  dwell.  All  creation  is  His  temple;  but  He  is 
more  at  home  in  the  contrite  heart.     Here  is  the  one 


TJw  High  Calling  of  God  49 

anomaly,  the  one  mystery  and  miracle  of  the  universe, 
the  miracle  of  freedom,  of  our  spiritual  independence 
even  of  God.  The  heart  of  man  is  the  house  of  God, 
but  God  dwells  and  can  dwell  only  in  the  contrite 
heart.  His  omnipotence  of  grace  waits  upon  and  is 
conditioned  by  our  will  and  pleasure  of  faith.  His 
house  are  we,  if  we  hold  fast  our  faith,  our  confidence 
and  the  glorying  of  our  hope  firm  unto  the  end.  The 
topic  then  of  this  second  division  of  our  subject,  this 
second  two  chapters  of  our  Epistle,  is  faith;  faith,  its 
end  or  object;  faith,  its  meaning  and  function;  faith, 
its  failures  and  its  victory. 

We  cannot  overestimate,  we  cannot  sufficiently  value, 
the  supreme  importance  of  the  Old  Testament  for  the 
proper  understanding  of  the  New.  We  do  not  know 
whether,  in  our  Lord  Himself,  most  to  wonder  at  His 
complete  possession  or  His  perfect  transcendence  of 
the  whole  mind  and  spirit  of  the  Old  Testament.  It 
is  the  supreme  illustration  of  the  principle  that  we  can 
only  truly  differ  from  or  pass  beyond  that  which  we 
have  first  perfectly  appreciated  and  understood.  If  it 
be  true  that  perfection  for  us,  of  any  sort,  natural  or 
spiritual,  is  attainable  only  by  stages,  in  many  parts 
and  by  many  ways,  then  there  is  a  relative  and  tem- 
porary meaning  and  use  too  in  incompletenesses  and 
imperfections.  We  are  never  to  condemn  the  past  in 
its  time  for  being  behind  the  present  in  its  fuller  time. 
It  was  the  wisdom  of  our  Lord  to  absorb  in  Himself, 
as  it  should  be  the  wisdom  of  Christianity  to  include 
and  carry  on  in  itself,  all  the  truth  and  all  the  life  that 
5 


50  High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

went  before.  The  Old  Testament  is  the  story  of  the 
genesis  and  evolution  of  the  spiritual  faculties  and 
functions.  With  all  its  incompletenesses  and  imper- 
fections, even  its  aberrations  and  errors,  it  is  forever 
the  text-book  of  the  spirit,  the  illustrated  and  pictur- 
esque annals  of  the  fortunes  and  progress  of  the  spiritual 
consciousness  and  conscience  of  humanity.  And  it  was 
a  light  shining  more  and  more  unto  the  perfect  day  of 
human  holiness,  righteousness,  and  eternal  life. 

The  redemption  from  the  ancient  bondage,  the  new 
birth  out  of  the  old  death  of  Egypt;  the  lifelong  journey 
through  the  wilderness  with  its  varied  and  trying  experi- 
ences and  temptations ;  the  promised  land  always  before 
and  never  in  sight;  the  discipline  and  issue  of  faith  and 
unbelief;  the  many  failures  to  enter  in,  the  final  victory 
and  entrance  of  the  few:  will  that  ever  cease  to  be  the 
story-book  of  the  spiritual  life,  divinely  wiser  and  more 
helpful  than  all  the  fairy  tales  of  human  science  and 
adventure  ?  It  is  a  great  mistake,  in  the  exaggerations 
of  other-worldliness,  to  underrate  and  neglect  God's 
great  book  of  this  world,  of  nature,  too;  but  the  extreme 
of  the  lesser  evil  is  not  to  be  remedied  or  avoided  by 
absorption  in  that  of  the  greater.  It  is  still  true  that 
the  most  proper  study  for  us  is  that  of  ourselves,  and 
still  true  that  we  only  truly  know  ourselves  in  our 
Godward  relations,  in  Him  who  has  been  eternally 
appointed  for  men  in  the  things  that  pertain  unto  God. 
And  so  the  Writer  especially  to  God's  ancient  people 
takes  his  brethren  back  to  the  old  text-book  of  faith  to 
prepare  them  for  newer  and  higher  application  of  that 


The  High  Calling  o)  God  51 

divine  principle  to  diviner  facts  and  truths  of  God 
and  man. 

"Wherefore,  as  saith  the  Holy  Ghost,  To-day  if  ye 
shall  hear  His  voice,  harden  not  your  hearts  as  in  the 
provocation,  as  in  the  days  of  temptation  in  the  wilder- 
ness, where  your  fathers  tempted  me  by  proving  me, 
and  saw  my  works  forty  years.  Wherefore  I  was  dis- 
pleased with  this  generation,  and  said,  They  do  alway 
err  in  their  heart:  they  did  not  know  my  ways;  as  I 
sware  in  my  wrath,  They  shall  not  enter  into  my  rest." 
"Harden  not  your  hearts — ";  we  are  said  to  harden 
our  hearts,  and  God  is  said  to  harden  our  hearts,  with 
reference  too  to  the  same  acts  of  hardening.  Pharaoh's 
heart  was  hardened:  Pharaoh  hardened  his  heart:  God 
hardened  Pharaoh's  heart.  That  which  is  at  one  time 
described  as  a  natural  process  and  result  is  at  another 
time  characterized  as  an  act  of  Pharaoh,  and  at  yet 
another  as  an  act  of  God.  The  constitution  of  nature 
is  an  act  of  God,  and  God  has  constituted  us  by  nature, 
through  the  inevitable  operation  of  a  spiritual  law,  to 
determine  ourselves,  to  fix  irrevocably  the  bent  of  our 
characters,  the  issue  of  our  lives  and  destinies,  by  our 
own  action  and  reaction  upon  all  the  circumstances  of 
our  outward  condition  in  the  world. 

The  meaning,  reason,  and  function  of  all  the  out- 
ward condition  in  which  we  are  placed  is  expressed 
in  the  word  temptation,  trial,  probation.  The  ele- 
mentary lesson,  not  only  of  God's  people  then  but 
of  God's  people  in  every  time,  was  uttered  in  the 
words,    "All  the  commandments  which  I   command 


52  High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

thee  this  day  shall  ye  observe  to  do,  that  ye  may 
live  and  multiply,  and  go  in  and  possess  the  land 
which  the  Lord  sware  unto  your  fathers."  There 
is  always  a  this  day,  and  always  the  promise  before 
us  of  a  blessing  which  we  are  to  go  in  and  possess; 
and  always  too  the  necessary  condition,  that  we 
observe  the  divinely  appointed  laws,  that  we  follow 
the  one  possible  way,  of  attaining  and  enjoying  the 
promised  blessing.  "And  thou  shalt  remember  all  the 
way  which  the  Lord  thy  God  hath  led  thee  these  forty 
years  in  the  wilderness,  that  He  might  humble  thee,  to 
prove  thee,  to  know  what  was  in  thy  heart,  whether 
thou  wouldst  keep  his  commandments,  or  no.  And  He 
humbled  thee,  and  suffered  thee  to  hunger,  and  fed 
thee  with  manna,  which  thou  knewest  not,  neither  did 
thy  fathers  know;  that  He  might  make  thee  know  that 
man  doth  not  live  by  bread  only,  but  by  everything  that 
proceedeth  out  of  the  mouth  of  the  Lord  doth  man 
live." 

The  end  of  probation  is  not  only  testing  or  trying, 
it  is  discipline  and  training,  it  is  exercising  and  devel- 
oping. Above  all  things  faith,  which  is  the  highest 
energizing  of  the  soul,  is  bom  in  and  is  perfected  by 
the  things  it  suffers  and  survives.  Faith  is  indeed  the 
soul's  survival  through  all  suffering,  its  victory  over  all 
conditions.  The  perfect  faith  is  that  which,  in  reaction 
with  all  things,  has  endured  all,  done  all,  become  all. 
The  great  lesson  of  faith  is  the  learning  to  see  through 
the  visible  to  the  invisible,  to  look  beyond  bread  to 
the  word  of  God,  to  be  able  to  say,  My  meat  and  drink 


The  High  Calling  of  God  53 

is  to  do  the  will  of  Him  that  sent  me.  Not  for  our 
Lord  alone  but  for  us  all,  The  kingdom  of  heaven  is 
not  meat  and  drink,  but  righteousness  and  peace  and 
joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost. 

"Take  heed,  brethren,  lest  there  be  in  any  one  of 
you  the  evil  heart  of  unbelief,  in  falling  away  from  the 
living  God;  but  exhort  one  another  day  by  day,  so  long 
as  it  is  called  To-day  —  while  still  there  remains  for 
you  a  To-day;  lest  any  one  of  you  be  hardened  by  the 
deceitfulness  of  sin:  for  we  are  become  partakers  of 
Christ,  if  we  hold  fast  the  beginning  of  our  confidence 
firm  unto  the  end."  The  end  of  faith,  the  substance 
of  the  promise,  the  thing  or  matter  of  our  final  inherit- 
ance, is  expressed  in  the  Old  Testament  under  several 
images  or  figures.  The  one  retained  here  is  that  of  a 
rest,  a  rest  after  the  weary  wanderings  of  the  wilderness, 
the  rest  that  in  one  form  or  another,  as  it  is  less  or 
better  understood  by  ourselves,  always  flits  before  and 
always  remains  to  be  attained  by  the  people  of  God. 
"Man  never  is,  but  always  to  be,  blessed." 

What  is  the  blessedness  ?  Here,  at  once,  the  whole 
great  truth  in  its  totality  is  expressed  in  a  phrase,  and 
then  left  to  be  analyzed  and  understood  in  detail 
through  all  the  rest  of  our  exposition :  We  are  become 
partakers  with  Christ,  partakers  of  Christ,  if  only  the 
beginning  of  our  faith  goes  on  with  us  to  the  end,  if 
only  the  principle  of  faith  within  us  is  perfected  into 
fruition.  Grant,  O  Lord,  that  we  who  know  thee  now 
by  faith,  may  afterward  have  the  fruition  of  thy 
glorious  Godhead !    Superficially,  and  within  the  limits 


54  High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

of  the  imagery  recalled  by  the  Apostle,  we  are  par- 
takers with  Christ;  —  although  it  should  then  be,  with 
Jesus.  The  people  of  that  former  day  did  not  enter  in 
with  their  Jesus,  or  Joshua.  And  even  the  one  or  two 
exceptions  who  did  so  did  not  find  in  what  they  entered 
the  true  promise  or  the  true  promised  land.  We  never 
do  find  our  heaven  in  that  in  which  we  are  always  ex- 
pecting it.  We  all  die  not  having  received  the  prom- 
ises; but  blessed  are  we,  if  we  die  still  in  faith,  a  faith 
which  death  so  far  from  extinguishing  will  but  realize ; 
if  we  die  still  seeing  our  hope  and  greeting  it  from  afar, 
and  confessing  that  we  have  been  but  wanderers  in  the 
wilderness,  pilgrims  and  strangers  upon  the  earth.  No 
Moses  or  Joshua  upon  earth  will  bring  us  into  the  true 
promises,  but  we  enter  into  and  share  them  with  the 
true  Captain  of  our  true  salvation.  We  are  in  faith, 
we  shall  be  in  fact,  partakers  with  Christ. 

But  that  is  very  small  part  of  the  truth;  we  are  be- 
come not  merely  partakers  externally  with  Christ, 
but  partakers  internally  of  Christ.  Jesus  Christ  is  no 
mere  outward  exemplar,  no  mere  distant  cause,  He  is 
the  very  substance  and  matter,  the  inward  realization 
and  reality  of  all  our  faith,  our  hope,  our  inheritance. 
He  is  in  us  that  kingdom  of  God  and  of  heaven  which 
is  not  meat  or  drink  but  righteousness  and  peace  and 
joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost.  Jesus  Christ  is  indeed  an 
external  revelation  and  manifestation  to  us  of  ourselves. 
They  who  see  and  know  Him  find  in  Him  a  meaning, 
a  reason,  an  end,  for  which  life  is  worth  living;  which 
explains  and  justifies  all  the  mysterious  depths  and 


The  High  Calling  of  God  55 

heights  which  we  are  called  upon  to  traverse  in  the 
difficult  and  painful  attainment  of  our  destiny. 

Jesus  Christ  is  indeed  too  the  external  instrument 
and  cause  of  our  salvation.  The  laws  and  processes  of 
spiritual  causation — how  the  Spirit  or  power  or  grace  of 
God  can  be  the  cause  of  spiritual  effects  in  us  of  which 
we  too  must  be  the  cause — may  on  their  invisible  divine 
side  be  beyond  our  ken,  but  on  their  visible  human  side 
we  may  to  a  certain  extent  trace  and  comprehend 
them.  God  draws  and  moves  us  with  the  bands  of  a 
man.  He  works  supernaturally  within  the  laws  and 
methods  of  His  natural  operations.  He  moves  and 
moulds  us  through  our  own  reasons,  affections,  desires, 
wills,  personal  activities,  habits,  characters,  lives.  We 
can  only  ourselves  become  what  we  ourselves  know, 
love,  desire,  will,  and  purpose  as  the  end  of  our  becom- 
ing, as  that  which  will  constitute  and  complete  our 
being.  That  which  is  truly  final  cause  to  us  will  of 
itself  be  efficient  cause  of  us.  That  is  the  divine  method 
of  our  new  creation  in  Christ  Jesus.  His  name, 
through  faith  in  His  name,  makes  us  every  whit  whole; 
that  is  to  say,  What  He  is  to  us,  through  our  faith  in 
what  He  is  to  us,  operates  in  us  to  make  us  what  He  is. 
As  God  speaks  and  it  is  done:  as  when  He  said  light 
there  was  light;  so  His  Word  of  light  and  life  to  us  in 
Jesus  Christ  is  light  and  life  to  us  directly  from  Him- 
self. He  none  the  less  makes  it  so  because  only  we  too 
ourselves  can  make  it  so. 

It  is  not,  however,  enough  to  say  that  Jesus  Christ  is 
both  external   expression   and   external  cause   of  our 


56  High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

salvation  or  of  ourselves.  It  is  not  enough  even  to  say 
that  He  is  the  internal  truth  and  power  of  us;  we  are 
not  partakers  of  something  from  Christ  merely,  as 
truth  or  power,  we  are  partakers  of  Christ.  We  are 
not  sharers  of  a  thing,  but  in  union  with  a  Person :  and 
we  are  in  so  intimate  union  with  the  Person,  that  He 
is  not  merely  in  and  with  us  but  becomes  identified  and 
identical  with  us;  we  are  no  longer  we  but  He.  I  live 
no  longer,  Christ  lives  in  me.  This  is  no  idle  refining 
nor  mere  word-play.  Christ  does  not  only  give  us 
our  life,  He  is  our  life.  We  do  indeed  want  the  thing 
He  is;  but  the  thing  He  is  is  nothing,  it  is  dead,  apart 
from  Himself.  We  want  to  be  made  like  Him,  to  have 
a  holiness,  a  righteousness,  a  life  like  His,  but  all  these 
things  of  Him  can  have  no  existence  for  us  apart  from 
Him.  The  life,  or  anything  that  belongs  to  the  life, 
of  God,  of  Christ,  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  is  inseparable 
from  Them,  from  Him.  From  holy,  righteous,  or  good 
man  or  angel,  take  away  man  or  angel  and  you  have 
left  —  God.  It  is  not  enough  for  you  that  God  shall 
be  in  heaven;  it  is  not  enough  for  you  that  God  is  in 
Christ;  it  is  necessary  for  you  that  God  be  in  you,  that 
He  shall  be  you. 

There  is  always  more  wisdom  in  the  real  catholic 
conclusions  of  the  Church  than  there  often  is,  or,  we 
may  say,  than  there  ever  is,  in  the  reasons  or  proofs 
given  for  them.  In  the  divine  sacrament  in  which  we 
are,  in  the  most  immediate  and  direct  way,  made  par- 
takers of  Christ,  where  our  faith  accepts  God's  word 
of  grace  with  nothing  between,  we  are  not  willing  to 


The  High  Calling  of  God  57 

recognize  only  a  sign  or  expression  of  the  life  to  be 
made  ours;  we  are  not  content  with  any  mere  inter- 
mediary virtue  or  power  of  it.  We  want  the  life  itself; 
or  rather,  since  there  is  no  such  impersonal  thing  as  a 
life  itself,  we  want  The  Life  Himself.  We  eat  and 
drink  nothing  else  and  nothing  less  than  Jesus  Christ, 
who  is  God  our  holiness,  our  righteousness,  our  eternal 
life.  But  there  is  no  Jesus  Christ  for  our  life  but  Christ 
crucified.  We  can  be  baptized  into  Him  only  as  we 
are  baptized  into  His  death  and  His  risen  life;  the 
flesh  and  blood  we  eat  and  drink  are  His  broken  body 
and  His  shed  blood ;  surely  not  His  dead  self,  but  Him- 
self dead  for  ever  with  the  death  that  is  our  only  life, 
and  alive  with  the  life  that  is  ours  only  through  death 
with  Him. 

We  are  partakers  of  Christ,  if  we  hold  fast  the  be- 
ginning of  our  confidence  firm  unto  the  end.  Faith  is 
the  natural  condition  and  means  of  our  personally 
attaining  or  accomplishing  anything.  But  there  is  a 
natural  basis  or  ground  for  the  most  absolute  certainty 
of  our  attaining  the  particular  end  proposed  to  us  in 
Jesus  Christ.  It  consists  primarily  in  the  fact  that  that 
is  our  true  end.  The  ends  of  nature,  sought  by  the 
processes  of  nature,  are  naturally  the  most  sure  of 
attainment.  The  spiritually,  or  higher,  natural  is  that 
which  not  only  is  consonant  or  in  harmony  with  the 
ends  of  God  and  man,  for  that  all  nature  is,  but  is  itself 
the  immediate  and  true  end  of  God  and  man.  The 
true  end  is  that  which  is  not  only  so  in  itself,  but  for 
which  all  things  else  are  the  true  means.     When  one 


58  High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

truly  recognizes  his  end  in  Christ,  He  cannot  but 
recognize  it  as  not  only  the  end  to  which  he  himself 
most  naturally  and  therefore  most  certainly  tends,  but 
that  upon  which  everything  else  attends,  the  end  to- 
wards which  God  is  working,  and  therefore  all  things 
work  together. 

Mere  faith,  fides  sola,  is  of  itself  a  power;  it  is 
the  most  necessary  condition  and  the  most  effectual 
means  to  the  success  of  all  personal  action,  to  the 
attainment  of  any  personal  end;  whether  it  be  a  true 
or  false  end,  a  natural  or  abnormal  activity.  But 
where  the  end  is  a  true  or  real  end,  and  consequently 
the  action  a  natural  or  normal  one,  it  is  not  mere  or 
sheer  faith  that  carries  it  to  success,  but  it  is  the  end 
itself  working  and  accomplishing  itself  through  the 
faith.  It  is  an  all-important  matter  to  remember  that 
we  are  not  saved  fide  sola,  by  faith  alone.  "It  is  of 
faith  that  it  might  be  by  grace."  Grace  is  a  species 
of  divine  power  which  can  operate  only  in  and  through 
faith.  It  is  God's  working  in  our  working,  and  that 
can  take  place  only  in  that  personal  relation  of  our- 
selves to  God,  our  intelligence,  our  feelings  or  affections, 
our  will,  which  we  call  faith.  Any  action  of  God  in 
us  which  is  not  also  our  action  is  the  operation  of  a 
divine  power,  but  it  is  not  that  specific  divine  power 
which  we  call  grace.  Our  natural  perceptions  like 
those  of  colour  or  sound  have  no  objective  existence  in 
themselves.  They  are  purely  subjective;  that  is  they 
are  purely  actions  or  reactions  of  ourselves  in  response 
to  external  stimuli.     So  grace  is  a  divine  power  indeecL 


The  High  Calling  of  God  59 

and  a  divine  power  acting  in  us,  but  acting  only  in  our 
own  reactions  with  it. 

As  the  divine  presence  and  operation  in  us,  as 
potential  grace,  becomes  actual  grace  only  through 
our  own  reaction  with  it,  or  through  our  faith,  so, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  subjective  reaction  of  faith 
is  nothing  in  itself  or  except  in  correspondence 
with  the  objective  reality  and  power  of  grace.  It  is 
necessary,  therefore,  always  to  insist  upon  the  reality 
of  the  object  and  content  of  faith.  The  truth  of  God 
is  not  the  validity  of  a  mere  idea  —  the  idea,  for  ex- 
ample, of  a  perfect  righteousness  or  an  absolute 
goodness  as  the  ultimate  principle,  the  final  and 
purposive  cause  of  the  universe.  Love  or  goodness 
or  righteousness  is  wholly  a  quality  only  and  not  an 
entity;  it  is  wholly  a  personal  quality  and  can  have  no 
abstract  existence,  no  existence  apart  from  a  person- 
ality or  a  Person  coequal  and  co-universal  with  itself. 
It  is  only  the  Personal  God  who  gives  content  and 
reality  to  the  idea  of  goodness  or  righteousness  as  a 
universal  law.  The  truth  of  Jesus  Christ  is  not  the 
idea  or  ideal  of  a  humanity  in  perfect  correspondence 
with  Deity,  man  on  his  part  perfectly  responsive  to 
God  on  His  part,  the  acme  or  highest  reach  of  humanity 
heavenward  or  Godward.  An  idea  is  something  empty 
and  lacking  content  and  reality.  It  may  have  mean- 
ing, but  faith  wants  something  more  than  meaning 
for  its  content,  it  wants  realization,  reality.  Chris- 
tianity does  not  only  mean  man  redeemed  and  complete 
in  God;  that  is  indeed  a  very  true  meaning,  but  it  is 


60  High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

the  ultimate  function  of  faith  not  to  conceive  a  mean- 
ing but  to  realize  a  fact.  Christianity  is  man  redeemed 
and  complete  in  God,  because  it  is  God  incarnate  and 
fulfilled  in  man.  We  apprehend  that  for  which  we 
are  apprehended  in  Christ  Jesus.  We  lay  hold  upon 
grace  because  grace  has  laid  hold  upon  us;  it  is  only 
secondarily  we  by  our  faith  working  out  our  salvation; 
it  is  primarily  God  by  His  Grace,  that  is,  by  Himself 
in  us,  working  out  our  salvation. 

Therefore  again,  in  the  sacrament  of  our  life  it  is  not 
a  sign  only  that  we  receive,  nor  yet  a  virtue  only  or 
an  effect.  It  is  not  faith  only  that  is  active,  nor  faith 
that  is  the  most  actual,  in  that  transaction.  It  is  grace 
that  is  the  truest  actor;  and  grace  not  as  a  virtue  or  a 
thing,  but  as  the  personal  Holy  Ghost,  as  Jesus  Christ, 
as  God.  Faith  in  anything,  irrespective  of  the  truth  or 
reality  of  the  thing,  is  an  empty  shell  or  semblance  which 
sustains  itself  by  its  own  bare  assurance.  Faith  in  that 
which  has  indeed  a  true  meaning  and  would  be  a  true 
end,  but  has  no  other  warrant  for  faith  than  that  it 
means  the  truth,  has  a  certain  validity  so  far  as  it  goes. 
But  the  Christian  faith  that  takes  a  real  hold  upon  the 
concrete  and  realized  reality  of  God  actually  in  Christ, 
and  Christ  actually  in  ourselves  and  actually  ourselves, 
is  something  infinitely  and  divinely  removed  from  all 
lower  caricatures  or  shadows  of  itself. 

There  is  a  consistency  in  the  New  Testament  in  the 
identification  of  unbelief  with  disobedience.  Dis- 
obedience is  the  outward  form  or  varied  expressions 
of  that  of  which  unbelief  is  the  spiritual  condition  and 


The  High  Calling  of  God  61 

cause.  When  St.  Paul  spoke  of  our  Lord  as  having 
been,  in  His  humanity,  obedient  unto  death,  he  was 
describing  Him  as  having  been  as  man  true  to  all  that 
He  was  as  God.  Obedience  means  truth  to  God, 
truth  to  ourselves  as  potential  children  of  God  by  nature, 
predestined  children  of  God  by  grace.  Without  faith 
that  obedience  is  as  impossible  as  the  tree  without  its 
roots,  as  impossible  as  any  other  effect  without  its 
necessary  condition  or  cause.  Unbelief  and  disobedi- 
ence are  New  Testament  synonyms.  Who  were  they 
that  did  provoke?  With  whom  was  He  displeased 
forty  years  ?  Was  it  not  with  them  that  sinned,  whose 
carcasses  fell  in  the  wilderness  ?  And  to  whom  sware 
He  that  they  should  not  enter  into  His  rest,  but  to  them 
that  were  disobedient?  And  we  see  that  they  were 
not  able  to  enter  in  because  of  unbelief. 

We  have  now,  in  the  fourth  chapter  of  our  Epistle, 
to  discuss  more  definitely  the  meaning  and  truth  of  the 
Rest  of  God,  the  rest  that  remaineth  for  the  people  of 
God.  "Let  us  fear  therefore,  lest  haply,  a  promise 
being  left  of  entering  into  His  rest,  any  one  of  you 
should  seem  to  have  come  short  of  it."  The  fact  or 
reality  of  the  rest  is  proved  before  its  nature  is  defined. 
The  first  point  is  that  the  rest  itself  has  survived  and 
will  survive  all  mere  shadows  or  figures  of  it.  Rests  are 
promised,  rests  are  eagerly  expected,  rests  are  always 
either  failing  to  come  or  bitterly  disappointing  when 
they  come.  Promises  are  ever  failing,  and  yet  ever 
being  renewed;  there  is  always  a  To-day  in  which 
there  is  the  condition  and  the  warning,  "If  ye  shall 


62  High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

hear  His  voice  — !"  If  we  wonder  why  Life  is  such  a 
succession  of  endless  failures,  we  have  only  to  remem- 
ber that  every  to-day  is  a  day  of  temptation  in  the 
wilderness,  and  a  day  of  provocation  through  unbelief 
and  disobedience.  But  all  the  failures  of  the  rests 
do  not  nullify  the  promise  of  the  rest.  Though  we  all 
die  not  having  received  the  promise,  yet  the  promise 
remains. 

The  promise  of  the  rest  is  not  to  be  found  in  the 
Scriptures  alone.  It  is  written  there  only  because  the 
Scriptures  are  a  transcript  of  the  universal  heart  of 
man.  Eradicate  from  the  mind,  the  heart,  the  hope 
of  man  the  question  of  his  end,  his  destiny,  the  dream 
of  victory  in  his  warfare,  of  rest  from  his  toil,  of  a 
promised  land  beyond  all  the  defeats  and  failures  and 
deaths  of  the  wilderness,  and  you  have  done  the  most 
possible  to  dehumanize  him.  The  end  is  that  which 
most  defines  a  thing;  the  end  is  that  upon  which  every 
existing  thing  is  most  intent.  The  acorn  can  never 
rest  until  it  is  an  oak;  man  can  never  rest  until  all  his 
manhood  has  been  accomplished  and  attained.  No 
finite  or  temporal  meaning  and  reason  and  end  of 
himself  will  ever  satisfy  and  still  the  craving  of  spiritual 
manhood  for  more  life,  all  life,  the  life  of  God.  The 
true  end,  the  real  end,  can  never  cease  to  be  a  goad, 
a  craving,  a  necessity  to  any  living  being.  The  real 
end  is  not  a  speculation,  an  invention,  it  is  a  fact,  and 
it  can  never  cease  acting  as  an  end;  and  it  is  the  end 
that  determines  the  whole  nature  and  process,  the  whole 
life  and  destiny,  of  every  being  in  the  universe.     Our 


The  High  Calling  of  God  63 

Lord's  promise  to  be  with  us  to  the  end  of  the  world 
will  be  fulfilled;  He  will  be  with  us  to  the  end  of  the 
world,  because  He  is  the  true  end  of  the  world. 

The  rest  of  man  is  the  rest  of  God:  we  shall  enter 
into  His  rest.  There  is  a  meaning  in  the  rest  of  God 
of  which  the  Sabbath  is  a  faint  symbol.  God  rested 
from  His  work;  what  was  His  rest?  The  only  rest 
from  true  work,  the  only  true  rest  from  work,  is  to  be 
sought  and  found  in  the  completion  and  perfection  of 
the  work.  God  saw  everything  that  He  had  made, 
and,  behold,  it  was  very  good.  And  God  finished  His 
work  which  He  had  made ;  and  He  rested  on  the  seventh 
day  from  all  His  work  which  He  had  made.  And  there 
is  a  promise  to  man,  written  in  his  very  nature,  pre- 
destined before  the  worlds  were  made,  that  he  shall 
enter  into  the  rest  of  God.  The  hope  and  expectation 
of  it,  under  a  thousand  crude  and  partial  forms,  per- 
sists because  it  is  the  first  and  last  principle  in  us  of 
our  spiritual  constitution.  Man's  instinct  and  intuition 
of  his  end  is  God's  prophecy  and  promise  of  his  end. 

God's  rest  is  not  cessation  from  work ;  the  thought  is 
absurd  and  was  never  intended.  When  our  Lord  was 
charged  with  doing  His  works  of  love  and  power, 
apparently  by  preference,  on  the  sabbath  day,  His 
answer  was,  My  Father  worketh  even  until  now,  and 
I  work.  God's  rest  is  not  idleness  or  inaction,  it  is 
the  perfection  of  activity.  Man  is  capable  of  God's 
rest  because  he  is  capable  of  God's  work.  He  has  a 
rest  like  God,  because  he  has  a  work  like  God.  The 
distinctive  glory  of  man,  that  in  which  God  has  made 


64  High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

him  in  His  own  image,  is  that  God  has  made  him  a 
worker  like  Himself  and  given  him  a  work  of  his  own 
to  do.  He  has  given  us  to  have  life  in  ourselves,  He 
has  given  to  us  to  do  our  own  work,  to  live  our  own 
lives.  He  that  is  entered  into  his  rest  hath  himself 
also  rested  from  his  works,  as  God  did  from  His. 
This  personal  otherness  from  and  even  independence 
of  God  is  the  condition  and  the  potentiality  of  man's 
exaltation  above  all  other  works  of  God's  hands,  as  it 
is  the  awful  possibility  of  all  his  equal  degradation. 


IV 

CHRIST,    THE     ALL-TEMPTED     YET    ALL- 
SINLESS 

Hebrews  3-4 

The  work  of  man,  the  work  of  each  man,  is  to  be 
himself.  All  that  Jesus  Christ  Himself  accomplished 
or  attained  in  His  humanity  is  contained  and  expressed 
in  the  single  fact  that  He  was  the  man  He  was.  The 
task  of  being  a  man,  of  actualizing  all  the  divine  poten- 
tialities of  manhood,  of  making  man  as  God,  of  making 
man  one  with  God,  was  accomplished  in  Him.  He  is 
the  author,  not  only  the  teacher  or  revealer  but  the 
maker  and  opener,  of  the  Way  to  God;  When  He  had 
overcome  the  sharpness  of  death,  He  opened  unto  us 
the  gate  of  everlasting  life.  As  God  Himself  is  most 
God  to  us  when  He  fulfils  Himself,  fulfils  that  which 
He  is,  fulfils  Love,  in  other,  in  man;  so  man  is  only 
then  wholly  man,  wholly  himself,  when  he  loses  himself 
in  other,  in  God. 

In  that  completeness  of  finding  through  losing,  of 
receiving  through  surrendering  ourselves,  is  our  only 
rest  or  peace.  As  ourselves  are  only  God's  through 
our  own  making  us  so,  so  too  only  through  our  mak- 
ing ourselves  God's  are  we  truly  our  own,  or  our- 
selves. Christianity  is  the  concrete  realization  of  an 
6  65 


66  High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

older  conception  of  that  end  of  human  existence 
toward  which  all  normal  human  action  cannot  but 
strive.  Rest  or  peace  or  happiness  is  to  be  found 
only  in  the  fulness  of  life.  It  is  not  a  state  or  a  condi- 
tion, whether  outward  or  inward;  it  is  the  perfect 
energizing  of  all  the  powers  of  the  soul;  it  is  the  bringing 
into  complete  and  harmonious  actuality  all  the  poten- 
tialities of  our  nature,  all  the  activities  of  our  life. 
Only  He  who  comes  that  we  may  have  life  and  have  it 
more  abundantly,  have  it  with  all  the  abundance  of 
God  Himself,  can  be  the  true  end  and  rest  of  our 
souls. 

If  Joshua  had  given  the  rest,  there  would  not  have 
been  talk  of  another  day,  "To-day  if  ye  shall  hear 
His  voice,  harden  not  your  hearts."  The  day  of 
warning,  of  temptation  in  the  wilderness,  of  the  danger 
of  provocation,  of  the  sure  promise  to  faith,  remaineth 
for  the  people  of  God.  Let  us  therefore  give  diligence 
to  enter  into  that  rest,  that  no  man  fall  after  the  same 
example  of  disobedience.  For  the  word  of  God  is 
living  and  active  and  sharper  than  any  two-edged 
sword,  and  piercing  even  to  the  dividing  of  soul  and 
spirit,  of  both  joints  and  marrow,  and  quick  to  discern 
the  thoughts  and  intents  of  the  heart.  The  danger  of 
unbelief  and  the  incentive  to  faith  and  obedience  turn 
upon  the  nature  of  the  object  of  our  faith  or  unfaith. 
That  with  which  we  have  to  do  is  the  word  of  God. 
We  are  not  dealing  here  with  mere  impersonal  truths 
or  facts,  we  are  face  to  face  and  have  to  do  directly 
with  the  living  God.     The  Word  of  our  salvation  is  the 


Christ  the  All- Tempted  67 

living  God  Himself.     The  point  now  is  not  our  faith, 

hut  that  which  lives  and  works  in  our  faith.  The 
Word  of  God  is  not  like  other  words.  Other  words  are 
mere  signs  or  symbols,  and  may  be  signs  and  symbols  of 
mere  things.  The  Word  of  God  is  God;  it  is  the  thing 
it  means  and  does  the  thing  it  says. 

We  know  better  than  we  can  prove  or  explain,  that 
if  an  instituted  sacrament  is  a  direct  word  of  God  to 
our  souls,  then  here  is  something  more  than  mere  sign 
or  meaning;  here  is  res  ipsa,  the  thing  meant  or  signi- 
fied. If  Baptism  means  regeneration,  faith  must  see  in 
it  regeneration ;  if  the  sacrament  of  the  altar  means  the 
communion  of  the  body  and  blood  of  Christ,  faith  must 
receive  in  it  all  the  divine  reality  of  the  body  and  blood 
of  Christ.  So,  more  comprehensively,  the  word  of  God 
which  is  the  object  of  our  faith  and  obedience,  or  of  our 
unbelief  and  rejection,  is  the  eternal  personal  Wrord  of 
God,  who  is  God.  Here  is  something  infinitely  able  to 
live  and  work  in  our  faith,  and  so  infinitely  capable  of 
reproducing  and  becoming  the  life  and  work  of  God 
in  us  and  of  us  in  God. 

The  Scriptures  compare  the  working  of  God's  word 
in  our  natural  or  physical  and  in  our  spiritual  and 
moral  creation.  "Thou  hast  knit  me  together  in  my 
mother's  womb.  I  will  give  thanks  unto  thee;  for  I 
am  fearfully  and  wonderfully  made.  My  frame  was 
not  hidden  from  thee  when  I  was  made  in  secret,  and 
curiously  wrought  in  the  lowest  parts  of  the  earth. 
Thine  eyes  did  see  mine  imperfect  substance,  and  in 
thy  book  were  all   my  members  written,  which  day 


68  High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

by  day  were  fashioned,  when  as  yet  there  was  none  of 
them."  (Ps.  139.)  And  this  wonder  of  his  physical 
becoming  is  to  the  Psalmist  but  the  mysterious  back- 
ground of  the  yet  deeper  mystery  of  his  spiritual  shaping 
and  framing:  "Thou  hast  searched  me  and  known  me, 
and  art  acquainted  with  all  my  ways.  There  is  not  a 
word  in  my  tongue,  but,  lo,  O  Lord,  thou  knowest  it 
altogether.  Thou  hast  beset  me  behind  and  before, 
and  laid  thine  hand  upon  me.  Such  knowledge  is  too 
wonderful  for  me;  it  is  high,  I  cannot  attain  unto  it. 
Whither  shall  I  go  from  thy  spirit  ?  Or  whither  shall 
I  flee  from  thy  presence  ?  How  precious  also  are  thy 
thoughts  unto  me,  O  God!  Search  me  and  know  my 
heart:  try  me  and  know  my  thoughts:  and  see  if  there 
be  any  way  of  wickedness  in  me,  and  lead  me  in  the 
way  everlasting."  The  Word  of  God  works  with  a 
vast  and  mysterious  difference  as  it  fulfils  itself  now  in 
the  unconscious  matter  of  natural  creation  and  now  in 
the  conscious  and  free  subject  of  spiritual  creation. 
One  is  the  direct  and  immediate  working  of  the  Word 
upon  its  object;  the  other  is  the  working  of  the  Word 
through  the  Spirit;  that  is,  through  the  reflex  response 
and  working  with  it  of  its  object.  But  it  is  always  the 
same  Word  of  God  which  knows  how  to  fulfil  itself 
according  to  the  nature  and  end  of  that  in  which  it 
works.  For  both  the  Word  and  the  Spirit  perform 
their  several  functions  according  to  the  will  of  God. 
It  is  only  in  the  poetic  language  of  the  spiritual 
imagination  that  we  can  express  the  living  realities  of 
God's  working  anywhere;  it  is  too  wonderful  for  us,  we 


Christ  the  All-Tempted  69 

cannot  attain  unto  it;  His  ways  are  past  finding  out. 
The  Word  acts,  the  Spirit  breathes,  where  and  as  they 
list;  we  know  the  effects,  and  through  the  effects  the 
causes;  but  we  cannot  know  the  secret  mode  of  their 
causation.  All  that  we  do  know  is  that,  within  all  the 
range  of  our  possible  experience,  there  is  no  real  cause 
or  causation  at  all  if  there  be  not  that  of  personal  origi- 
nation, of  thought  or  word  and  spirit.  All  else  in  the 
universe  is  mere  transmission,  the  passing  on  of  motion 
or  energy.  We  know  cause  at  all  only  through  the  ex- 
perience of  ourselves  as  finite,  that  is  as  limited  and 
conditioned,  causes,  or  persons.  If  there  is  any  real 
cause  at  all,  it  can  be  none  other,  or  nothing  else  than 
God.  And  we  know  that  there  is  cause,- therefore  we 
know  that  there  is  God. 

The  Word  of  God  is  living  and  active.  It  is  a  living, 
that  is  to  say,  a  spiritual  or  personal  entity  or  subject; 
and  its  energy  or  activity  is  not  of  that  necessary  or 
mechanical  sort  which  is  not  an  energy  at  all  but  only 
a  semblance  or  mode  of  energy,  but  a  real  or  a  personal 
energy  and  activity.  The  power  of  God  unto  human 
salvation,  which  manifests  itself  in  Christ  and  in  all 
living  members  of  Christ,  is  the  power  of  life  itself  in 
Him  and  in  them.  We  have  power  in  God  to  be  what 
God  is  and  to  do  what  God  does.  Our  finiteness  or 
limitation  in  God  is  natural  or  physical,  not  spiritual; 
it  is  not  in  our  life  but  in  our  organs  of  life.  ;We  are 
conscious  in  ourselves  of  the  possibility  and  the  law  or 
demand  of  a  perfect  or  infinite  holiness,  righteousness, 
moral  and  spiritual  life.     We  are  limited  only  in  our 


70  High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

present  powers,  not  in  our  real  or  living  powers.  We 
experience  even  in  our  present  powers  occasional  condi- 
tions, moments  of  exceptional  elation  or  exaltation,  in 
which  we  unexpectedly  and  extraordinarily  transcend 
our  ordinary  selves,  and  which  are  suggestions  to  us  of 
what  we  might  become  through  permanent  changes  of 
our  present  powers  or  organs.  If  when  drowning  one 
experiences  a  singular  quickening  of  the  power  of 
memory,  recalls  details  long  lost  to  ordinary  conscious- 
ness, why  may  not  some  even  physical  change  in  us 
be  the  basis  of  that  completer  elevation  of  memory 
above  the  limit  of  common  consciousness,  which  will 
be  the  opening  of  the  books  in  the  great  day  of  universal 
judgment?  Our  Lord's  transfiguration  was  but  an 
anticipation  of  His  resurrection,  a  momentary  revelation 
of  the  glory  that  was  going  to  be  revealed  when  physi- 
cally as  well  as  spiritually  He  should  pass  from  the 
limitations  of  the  natural  into  the  expanded  powers  of 
the  spiritual. 

Our  Lord  Himself  said  that  the  two  functions  of 
the  Son  of  man,  or  of  the  Incarnate  Word,  were  the 
giving  of  life,  and  the  execution  of  judgment.  These 
in  themselves  are  not  the  contrary  or  distinct  things 
which  they  may  superficially  appear  to  be.  Judgment 
is  discrimination,  separation.  All  life  begins  with 
and  consists  in  differentiation;  and  though  in  mere 
physical  life  the  differentiation  is  for  the  simple  end  of 
specialization  and  organization,  in  spiritual  and  moral 
life  it  has  a  far  higher  purpose  and  result.  Out  of  it 
proceeds  the  entire  possibility  and  activity  of  moral 


Christ  the  All-Tempted  71 

distinction,  moral  judgment,  choice,  will,  action, 
character,  life,  personality.  Rational  distinctions  of 
true  or  false,  moral  distinctions  of  good  or  bad,  right 
or  wrong,  spiritual  distinctions  of  nature  or  grace, 
self  or  God,  law  or  gospel,  works  or  faith,  —  the  Word 
of  God  is  a  two-edged  sword,  piercing  to  the  dividing 
of  soul  and  spirit,  as  well  as  of  joints  and  marrow,  and 
quick  to  discern  the  thoughts  and  intents  of  the  heart. 
For  krisis,  for  criticism  and  judgment  am  I  come  into 
the  world,  says  our  Lord.  Life-giving  is  itself  judg- 
ment; that  which  is  life  to  him  who  has  it  cannot  but 
be  death  to  him  who  has  it  not;  if  the  Word  and 
the  Spirit  of  God,  if  holiness  and  righteousness,  the 
nature  shared  with  God  and  the  law  of  God  fulfilled, 
are  life,  what  must  be  the  unbelief  and  the  disobedience 
that  are  the  personal  rejection  of  all  these? 

Not  only  is  life  to  some  necessarily  judgment  to  others; 
it  is  equally  true  that  only  judgment  properly  exercised 
and  executed  is  life.  God's  wrath  upon  sin  is  as  neces- 
sary and  as  salutary  to  us  as  His  grace  to  repentance 
and  faith.  If  we  cannot  combine  with  God  in  His 
judgment  upon  ourselves  we  cannot  be  recipients  from 
Him  of  His  grace  of  life.  Nay,  if  we  cannot  in  very 
truth  and  reality  unite  with  Him  in  the  execution  upon 
ourselves  of  His  penalty  of  death  for  sin,  then  we  can- 
not receive  from  Him  the  supreme  gift  of  His  resurrec- 
tion unto  life.  And  there  is  no  creature  that  is  not 
manifest  in  His  sight:  but  all  things  are  naked  and 
laid  open  before  the  eyes  of  Him  with  whom  we  have 
to  do. 


72  High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

The  Epistle  comes  back  to  its  refrain,  in  terms  at  the 
close  of  the  four  chapters  very  similar  to  those  in 
which  the  first  two  were  summed  up  at  their  close. 
"Having  then  a  great  high  priest,  who  hath  passed 
through  the  heavens,  Jesus  the  Son  of  God,  let  us 
hold  fast  our  confession.  For  we  have  not  a  high 
priest  that  cannot  be  touched  with  the  feeling  of  our 
infirmities;  but  one  that  hath  been  tempted  in  all  points 
like  as  we  are,  yet  without  sin.  Let  us  therefore  draw 
near  with  boldness  unto  the  throne  of  grace,  that  we 
may  receive  mercy,  and  may  find  grace  to  help  us  in 
time  of  need."  The  point  always  in  view  is  the  full 
and  exact  determination  of^  the  person  and  the  work 
of  the  great  High  Priest.  This  involves,  of  course,  an 
analysis  of  the  true  meaning  and  function  of  high 
priesthood,  but  the  matter  defines  itself  only  step  by 
step,  rather  in  the  process  of  the  action  than  in  the 
progress  of  the  argument.  In  which  we  shall  see,  I 
think,  that  high  priesthood  defines  itself  in  the  transcen- 
dent act  of  Christ,  rather  than  that  that  act  is  to  be 
limited  or  defined  by  any  precedent  fact  or  meaning 
of  high  priesthood.  We  shall  go  no  further  now  than 
the  argument  has  progressed,  but  consider  as  carefully 
as  we  can  the  terms  of  description  used  in  the  passage 
immediately  before  us. 

"Seeing  that  we  have  a  great  high  priest,  who  hath 
passed  through  the  heavens  —  " :  The  language  of  the 
highest  truth  is  that  of  poetry  rather  than  of  natural 
science,  of  intuition  rather  than  of  sense  perception, 
of  the  spirit  rather  than  of  the  letter.     When  we  speak 


Christ  the  All- Tempted  73 

of  our  Lord  passing  through  the  heavens,  we  are  not 
talking  of  material  spaces,  but  of  spiritual  progresses 
and  processes.  The  expressions  in  the  Epistle  are 
significantly  and  interestingly  progressive.  Here  the 
High  Priest  has  passed  through  the  heavens;  at  Ch. 
VII.  26  He  has  become  higher  than  the  heavens;  at 
Ch.  IX.  24  He  has  entered  into  heaven  itself.  The 
processes  and  stages  are  not  material  but  spiritual. 
When  our  Lord  promises  that  we  shall  be  with  Him 
where  He  is,  and  adds  that  no  man  cometh  to  the 
Father  but  by  Him,  he  means  something  just  as  real  as 
any  material  door  or  path  can  be;  indeed,  He  speaks 
in  the  actual  terms  of  material  things  when  He  says, 
I  go  to  prepare  a  place  for  you,  and  I  will  come  again 
and  receive  you  unto  myself;  that  where  I  am,  there  ye 
may  be  also;  and  whither  I  go,  ye  know  the  way. 
Here  is  everything  said  in  terms  of  places  and  ways  and 
goings  and  comings,  and  to  some  of  us  they  may  seem 
the  expression  of  material  things  and  acts.  I  am  quite 
sure  that  when  our  Lord  says,  I  am  the  door,  or  I  am 
the  way,  He  says  something  as  literally  true  as  though 
it  were  a  material  door  or  path  He  was  speaking  of; 
it  is  as  literally  true  that  only  by  Him  or  through  Him 
we  can  come  to  the  Father  —  to  God's  fatherhood 
through  our  sonship  —  as  it  is  true  that  we  enter  a 
house  through  a  door  or  reach  a  place  by  a  path.  But 
we  do  not,  on  that  account,  mean  to  say  that  our 
Lord  is  a  material  door  or  path;  there  are  other  kinds 
of  doors  and  ways  than  physical  or  material  ones;  and 
they  are  none  the  less  actual  or  real. 


74  High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

So  to  have  passed  through  the  heavens,  to  have 
become  higher  than  the  heavens,  to  have  entered  into 
heaven  itself,  the  very  heaven  of  heavens,  means  what  ? 
Why  this  —  that  there  are  higher  and  highest  heights 
of  heaven;  that  heaven  is  a  process  and  a  progress; 
that  heavenliness  is  to  be  attained  only  by  taking  all 
the  steps  of  the  way  that  leads  to  it.  Jesus  Christ  is 
not  only  the  end  but  He  is  the  way,  and  every  step  of 
the  way.  Step  by  step  of  the  necessary  appointed  way 
of  human  salvation,  of  human  redemption  and  com- 
pletion, He  himself  became  and  is  our  salvation.  He 
suffered  for  sins  that  He  might  bring  us  to  God,  being 
put  to  death  in  the  flesh  and  quickened  or  made  alive 
in  the  spirit. 

A  great  high  priest  who  hath  passed  through  the 
heavens,  Jesus  the  Son  of  God !  It  is  His  human  name, 
His  humanity,  in  which  He  is  Son  of  God;  and  He 
has  passed  through  and  above  all  the  heavens,  and  into 
the  heaven  itself,  which  is  the  accomplished  nature 
and  life  of  God,  in  order  to  become  the  Son  of  God. 
We  shall  begin  to  see  in  the  next  chapter  how  that  Jesus 
Christ  was  glorified  to  be  made  a  high  priest  by  the 
identical  supreme  act  in  which  He  was  born  son  of 
God;  or  in  other  terms,  how,  while  the  law  had  ap- 
pointed men  high  priests  who  were  stilly  imperfect,  God 
appointeth  real  high  priest  Him  who  is  Son  perfected 
for  evermore,  or  Him  who  as  man  is  forevermore  per- 
fected in  His  divine  sonship. 

Having  such  a  high  priest,  let  us  grasp  securely  and 
hold   fast  our  confession.     For  we  have  not  a  high 


Christ  the  All- Tempted  75 

priest  that  cannot  be  touched  with  the  feeling  of  our 
infirmities,  but  one  who  knows  all  our  weaknesses  and 
temptations,  and  who  has  found  and  made  a  way  of 
escape  by  which  we  too  may  bear  and  overcome  them. 
Let  us  come,  therefore,  with  boldness  unto  the  throne 
of  grace,  that  we  may  receive  mercy,  and  may  find  grace 
to  help  us  in  time  of  need.  Let  us  reflect  a  little  upon 
the  anomaly  of  this  seeming  helplessness  of  God  to  do 
more  than  merely  suffer  with  us  or  sympathize,  and  by 
His  loving  association  of  Himself  with  us  give  us  heart 
and  hope  and  help  to  work  out  our  own  salvation. 
Why  is  not  the  divine  power  sufficient  of  itself  to  save 
us,  without  the  necessity  of  God's  having  to  humble 
Himself  to  suffer  with  us  the  toil  and  the  agony  of  our 
own  self-attained  salvation  ?  For  there  is  not  a  word 
said  of  our  not  having  to  suffer  it  all,  to  do  it  all,  to 
accomplish  it  all  to  the  very  last  jot  or  tittle.  All  that 
is  said  is,  He  suffers  and  does  it  in  us  and  with  us, 
shares  with  us  the  last  bitter  drop  of  the  cup  of  the 
human  experience  that  enters  into  or  goes  with  the 
making  of  human  life  and  human  destiny. 

How  impossible  it  is  that  the  human  heart  or  mind 
should  have  ever  conceived  ordevised  theGospcl  of  God! 
God  saves  us  by  reversing  all  our  natural  estimates  and 
judgments^  and  in  reversing,  correcting,  and  fulfilling 
them.  God  is  only,  within  our  apprehension  or  ex- 
perience, completely  God,  perfectly  Himself,  in  the  act 
of  sharing  our  weaknesses  and  limitations;  man  only 
truly  finds  himself  in  losing  himself,  becomes  himself 
by  dying  to  himself.     We  may  speak  folly  in  attempting 


76  High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

to  express  the  wisdom  of  God's  foolishness  or  the 
foolishness  of  God's  wisdom,  but  it  is  there,  and  the 
height  of  folly  is  the  lack  of  wisdom  to  recognize  and 
acknowledge  it.  We  have  got,  not  merely  passively  to 
recognize,  but  actively  to  realize  in  ourselves  the 
synthesis  of  two  seemingly  opposite  truths.  The  first 
is  that  only  God  can  make  us  ourselves;  the  second 
is  that  only  we  can  be  or  become  ourselves.  The  most 
high  God  can  only  sympathize  with,  wait  upon,  and 
enable  us.  His  sympathy  is  an  infinite  suffering  with; 
His  waiting  is  a  divine  longsuffering  and  patience;  His 
help  or  enabling  is  an  everlasting  fellowship  and  work- 
ing with  us;  but  His  own  spiritual  creation  and  pre- 
destination of  us  forbid  and  forefend  His  part  in  our 
salvation  from  violating  by  one  jot  or  tittle  our  personal 
constitution  or  our  spiritual  task  or  business.  Nothing 
can  be  instead  of  ourselves  in  the  human  and  humaniz- 
ing task  before  us  of  suffering,  attaining,  becoming. 
The  prize  of  our  high  calling  in  Christ  Jesus  is  to  be 
like  Him,  in  His  way  —  which  is  our  only  way.  If  we 
would  sit  at  His  right  hand  and  be  great  in  His  king- 
dom, we  must  drink  His  cup  and  be  baptized  with  His 
baptism.; 

There  are  a  few  words  which  I  have  left  out  or 
changed,  and  which  remain  for  our  most  minute  and 
exact  analysis  and  interpretation;  for  they  express  the 
very  gist  of  the  work  of  our  salvation  as  wrought  in  and 
by  Christ.  Our  High  Priest  is  described  as  one  who 
has  been  at  all  points  tempted  like  as  we  are,  yet  with- 
out sin.     This  is  the  locus  classicus  of  the  Christian 


Christ  the  All- Tempted  77 

affirmation  of  the  reality  of  our  Lord's  humanity  and 
yet  of  His  sinlessness  in  it.  There  is  not  one  of  the 
real  New  Testament  interpreters  of  our  Lord  who  does 
not  distinctly  assert  the  fact  of  His  sinlessness,  and  yet 
always  incidentally,  and  without  consciousness  of  the 
thought  that  it  is  a  fact  needing  assertion  or  proof. 
St.  Peter  says  that  Christ  suffered  for  us,  leaving  us  an 
example  that  we  should  follow  His  steps;  who  did  no  sin. 
St.  John  says  that  He  was  manifested  to  take  away  sin, 
and  in  Him  is  no  sin.  St.  Paul  says  that  He  was  made 
to  be  sin  for  us,  Who  (Himself)  knew  no  sin.  But  our 
present  Author  is  more  explicit  and  exact,  and  here,  if 
anywhere,  we  must  study  the  true  meaning  of  the  sin- 
lessness of  Jesus  Christ. 

It  is  not  the  mere  fact  of  His  sinlessness  that  most 
concerns  us  —  wonderful  as  that  is,  and  demanding 
explanation;  the  main  point  for  us  is  rather  the  how 
than  the  what  of  His  sinlessness.  For  the  Gospel 
of  Jesus  Christ  is  the  Gospel  of  the  Way  —  the  way 
to  God,  the  way  into  the  Holy  of  Holies,  the  way 
of  holiness  and  righteousness  and  eternal  life.  If 
Christianity  is  only  a  deeper  thinking,  a  wiser  talk- 
ing, a  higher  and  truer  dreaming  about  this  matter  of 
matters  with  us;  if  any  words  can  express  the  fact  of  it 
short  of  these,  When  Thou  hadst  overcome  the  sharp- 
ness of  death,  Thou  didst  open  the  kingdom  of  heaven 
to  all  believers,  —  then  Christianity  is  no  Gospel  of 
God.  And  the  all-necessary  and  important  thing  is, 
that  the  way  of  Him  is  the  way  of  us,  and  the  way  of 
us  was  the  way  of  Him.     It  was  the  woman's  seed  that 


78  High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

bruised  the  serpent's  head;  it  was  the  seed  and  heir 
of  Abraham's  faith  that  inherited  God's  promise;  it 
was  humanity  in  Jesus  that  conquered  sin,  wrought 
righteousness,  and  accomplished  eternal  life. 

There  is  nothing  that  so  contradicts  the  spiritual  truth 
of  the  Gospel,  and  so  obscures  and  hinders  the  true 
work  of  God  in  the  flesh,  as  any  and  every  form  of  the 
attempt  to  attribute  the  sinlessness  of  Jesus  to  a  differ- 
ence in  nature  from  ours,  or  a  difference  in  natural 
condition  from  ours.  Jesus  Christ  was  no  more  saved 
by  any  accident  or  fact  of  nature  than  we  are;  He  was 
saved  only  by  the  personal  act  of  His  own  holiness  and 
life  in  the  nature.  He  was  holy  because  He  conquered 
and  abolished  sin;  and  He  lives  forevermore  because 
He  was  the  conqueror  and  destroyer  of  death.  He 
performed  humanity's  task  and  has  reaped  humanity's 
reward;  He  accomplished  humanity's  relation  of  son- 
ship  to  God,  and  has  come  into  possession  of  humanity's 
inheritance  as  Son. 

There  is  not  a  shadow  of  New  Testament  basis  for 
the  supposition  that  the  motive  or  meaning  of  the 
virgin-birth  was  any  miraculous  differencing  of  our 
Lord's  human  nature  from  us.  The  sinlessness  was 
a  necessity  of  the  person  and  the  work  of  Him  who 
was  born  to  be  the  saviour  from  sin,  but  the  safe- 
guard from  sin  was  not  in  the  nature  assumed  but 
in  the  person  assuming  it.  He  was  not  come  to  find 
or  receive  a  sinless  nature,  but  to  redeem  and  save  a 
sinful  one;  and  He  redeemed  and  saved  it  by  His 
life    in    it.     The   nature  was    indeed    sinless   in   Him, 


Christ  the  All- Tempted  79 

as  He  in  it;  but  it  was  sinless  in  Him  because  He 
was  sinless  in  it,  and  not  vice  versa.  The  meaning  or 
truth  subserved  by  the  fact  of  the  virgin-birth  is,  that 
Jesus  Christ  is  not  a  son  of  man  but  the  Son  of  man; 
that  we  know  Him  not  as  product  of  the  union  of  Joseph 
and  Mary  but  as  fruit  and  expression  to  us  of  the  union 
of  God  and  man.  The  sinlessness  or  holiness  of  Jesus 
is  His  differentia  and  definition;  He  is  humanity  sanc- 
tified. But  He  is  not  merely  sanctification,  He  is  the 
,way  of  sanctification  for  man;  and  the  way  was,  first, 
not  by  nature  but  by  Himself  in  the  nature;  and,  then, 
not  by  Himself  but  by  God  in  Himself.  The  truth  and 
importance  of  this  requires  an  exact  analysis  of  the 
crucial  passage  before  us  and  one  or  more  others  in 
corroboration. 

Our  Lord  was  in  all  points  tempted  like  as  we  are  — 
without  sin.  How  or  in  what  sense  was  He  without 
sin  ?  By  an  antecedent  fact  of  nature  —  the  fact, 
namely,  that,  whereas  all  we  the  rest  were  born  into  a 
sinful  nature,  He  was  born  into  a  sinless  one  ?  But  how 
does  our  Epistle  itself  explain  the  X^R1*  afiapTLas  ?  We 
shall  see  more  fully,  probably  in  the  next  chapter,  where 
the  perfected  high  priest  is  described  as  Ktxwpis^eVos  airb 
Twv  dfmpTwXwv,  that  is,  not  separate  by  nature  but  sepa- 
rated by  a  specific  act  in  the  nature,  self-separated  and 
God-separated.  The  perfect  passive  participle  states 
the  completed  end  or  result  of  an  act  or  a  process.  I 
have  before  called  attention  to  a  significance  of  tenses 
in  this  Epistle  the  full  force  of  which  can  be  felt  only 
in  the  original.     Jesus  Christ  does  not  stand  for  an 


80  High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

originally  holy  human  nature  but  a  sanctified  or  made- 
holy  human  nature.  He  became  higher  than  the  angels 
and  acquired  in  the  end  a  more  excellent  name  than 
they.  He  is  perfected  Captain  of  our  salvation  through 
suffering.  He  is  Son,  perfected  as  such  by  an  act  of 
His  own,  forever.  The  whole  stress  of  the  Epistle  is 
not  so  much  upon  what  our  Lord  is,  as  upon  the  dis- 
tinctly human  —  and  yet  not  at  all  on  that  account  the 
less  divine  —  act  and  process  by  which  He  became 
what  He  is.  In  order  to  better  understand  our  Lord's 
perfectly  human  and  yet  wholly  sinless  relation  to  all 
temptation,  let  us  study  a  little  elsewhere  the  meaning 
of  temptation.  For  in  that  expression,  human  yet  sin- 
less temptation,  we  have  the  completest  and  most  exact 
statement  of  the  accomplished  work  of  Jesus  Christ 
in  our  humanity. 

St.  James  says,  Blessed  is  the  man  that  endureth 
temptation:  for  when  he  hath  been  approved,  he  shall 
receive  the  crown  of  life,  which  the  Lord  promised  to 
them  that  love  Him.  Let  no  man  say  when  he  is 
tempted,  I  am  tempted  of  God;  for  God  cannot  be 
tempted  with  evil,  and  He  himself  tempteth  no  man; 
but  each  man  is  tempted,  when  he  is  drawn  away  by 
his  own  lust,  and  enticed.  Then  the  lust,  when  it  hath 
conceived,  beareth  sin:  and  the  sin,  when  it  is  full- 
grown,  bringeth  forth  death.  There  is  a  blessedness 
in  the  fact  of  temptation  itself,  a  blessedness  that 
cannot  come  otherwise  than  by  means  of  temptation. 
Temptation  is  the  occasion,  the  opportunity,  the  means 
of    exercising    selfhood,    of    acquiring    personality,    of 


Christ  the  All- Tempted  81 

becoming  moral,  responsible,  free  beings,  of  becoming 
selves  like  God,   ourselves. 

There  is  no  temptation  that  can  befall  us  but  that 
is  human;  in  the  sense,  not  merely  that  it  is  human  to 
be  tempted,  but  that  humanity  is  attained  or  accom- 
plished only  through  temptation.  Temptation  is  the 
natural  and  only  stimulus  of  moral  intelligence  and 
judgment,  choice,  freedom,  virtue,  manhood.  We  com- 
plain that  temptation  produces  vice  or  sin;  —  yes,  but 
how  ?  Temptation  is  the  only  opportunity  or  way,  and 
therefore  it  is  the  call  to  us,  by  the  exercise  of  right 
reason  or  choice,  and  free  will  or  self-affirmation,  to  be 
or  do  or  become  the  thing  we  ought,  and  so  make  or 
fulfil  ourselves.  This  is  the  meaning  or  end  or  final 
cause  of  temptation,  and  when  we  fail  to  respond  to 
the  call,  the  call  to  become  men  by  that  which  alone 
can  make  us  men,  we  must  not  lay  the  blame  upon 
the  call  or  the  opportunity  but  upon  ourselves  who 
fail  to  come  up  to  it.  The  fault  of  cowardice  does 
not  lie  in  the  fact  of  danger,  nor  do  we  lay  the 
blame  of  sloth  upon  the  toil  of  labour.  The  good 
or  ill  of  things  to  us  lies  wholly  in  our  attitude  to 
and  action  upon  them.  The  devil  himself  is  the  su- 
preme evil  only  as  he  overcomes  us;  overcome  by  us, 
he  is  the  supreme  means  of  grace.  To  have  met 
and  overcome  all  temptation,  all  possibility  of  evil, 
was  the  pure  blessedness,  the  divine  glory,  of  Jesus 
Christ. 

And  yet  I  do  not  think  that  St.  James  meant  to  go  so 
far  back  as  to  express  the  blessedness  of  temptation  in 
7 


82  High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

itself.  He  says,  Blessed  is  the  man  who  endures  tempta- 
tion, that  is,  who  suffers  and  survives  it,  in  whom  it 
has  accomplished  its  meaning  and  end,  who  through 
and  by  means  of  it,  or  by  his  own  reaction  with  it,  has 
acquired  and  attained  his  manhood  or  virtue,  his 
spirituality  or  holiness,  his  proper  glorification  through 
the  suffering  necessary  to  it.  For  when  he  hath  been 
approved,  that  is,  proved  and  approved,  he  shall  re- 
ceive the  crown  of  life:  not  a  crown  upon  his  life,  as 
external  ornament  or  reward,  but  life  itself,  the  com- 
pleteness and  perfection  of  life,  as  the  crown  of  all 
right  suffering,  right  doing,  and  right  becoming. 

Let  no  man  say  when  he  is  tempted,  I  am  tempted  of, 
or  from,  God.  In  a  sense  we  may  and  do  say  that. 
Temptation  or  probation  is  a  divine  appointment  and 
a  necessary  experience.  But,  as  I  have  said,  I  do  not 
think  St.  James  is  going  back  into  that  essential  consti- 
tution of  things.  Just  as  when  he  declares  the  blessed- 
ness of  the  man  who  endures  temptation  he  means  the 
man  who  endures  it  manfully  or  successfully,  so  when 
here  he  speaks  of  him  who  is  tempted  he  means  him 
who  suffers  himself  to  be  tempted,  who  yields  to  the 
temptation.  Let  not  the  man  who  is  thus  tempted  put 
the  blame  of  it  upon  God;  for  God  leads  no  man  into 
temptation,  in  the  sense  of  failing  under  it.  We  might  as 
well  say  that  when  God  gives  us  the  hard  and  the  high 
life  of  Jesus  Christ,  where  the  hardness  and  the  high- 
ness are  essential  parts  of  the  life,  He  gives  us  also  the 
death  which  is  not  only  the  consequence  but  the  essence 
of  our  own  not  accepting  or  attaining  it. 


Christ  the  All- Tempted  83 

This  meaning  of  tempted,  as  equivalent  to  effectually 
tempted,  is  like  St.  Paul's  use  of  the  term  "called,"  as 
meaning  effectually  called:  the  called  are  they  who  have 
also  answered.  So  all  the  called,  in  one  sense,  are 
justified  and  glorified;  whereas  it  by  no  means  follows 
that  all  that  are  called,  in  the  other  sense,  are  neces- 
sarily so.  In  one  sense  we  are  all  blessed  in  being 
tempted;  it  is  the  very  first  condition,  and  our  highest 
opportunity,  of  being  blessed  at  all.  In  the  other  sense, 
we  are  very  far  from  all  blessed  through  being  tempted. 
The  truly  blessed  through  temptation  may  rightly  bless 
God  for  all  their  temptation;  the  actually  or  effectually 
tempted  cannot  lay  upon  God  the  blame  of  their  hav- 
ing been  tempted.  Where,  then,  is  the  cause  or  the 
fault  of  this  temptation  ?  Each  man  is  tempted,  when 
he  is  drawn  away  by  his  own  lust,  and  enticed.  What 
is  meant  by  each  man's  own  lust  ? 

There  are  few  words  in  common  use  that  are  free 
from  ambiguity.  Is  nature  evil  ?  —  or  the  flesh,  or  the 
world  ?  That  depends  upon  what  you  mean  by  nature 
or  the  flesh  or  the  world.  We  have  strictly  to  define 
our  terms,  that  is,  limit  ourselves  to  a  definite  part  or 
aspect  of  their  possible  meaning,  before  we  can  use 
them  safely  in  judgments  upon  things.  If  by  nature  or 
the  flesh  or  the  world  we  mean  these  in  their  normal 
condition  or  action,  as  they  ought  to  be,  it  is  absurd  to 
ask  whether  they  are  good.  Whilst  they  are  all  capable 
or  susceptible  of  untold  evil,  they  are  equally  the  condi- 
tions and  the  very  matter  or  material  of  all  our  possible 
good.     If  they  are  good,  they  are  good;  if  they  are  bad, 


84  High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

they  may  be  very  bad.  The  flesh  as  a  natural  con- 
stituent part  of  us,  our  true  nature,  is  good;  our  flesh 
in  its  actual  condition  and  action  in  us  all  is  in  none  of 
us  good,  —  a  fact  which  we  express  by  saying  that  no 
man  is  free  from  sin  in  the  flesh. 

This  very  term  lust,  which  has  acquired  for  us  so 
strong  an  emphasis  of  evil,  does  not,  in  its  Greek 
equivalent  at  least,  necessarily  involve  that  notion. 
The  distinction  has  been  made  in  the  will  which  is  the 
essence  of  our  manhood,  between  the  will  of  reason 
and  the  will  of  sense  or  sensibility.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  how  are  our  wills  moved  or  determined  ?  Are 
they  not  primarily  by  our  natural  instincts,  impulses, 
propensions,  our  appetites  if  they  are  of  the  body,  our 
desires  if  they  are  more  of  the  mind,  our  affections  if 
they  are  of  our  social  nature  ?  Now  all  these  are  of 
the  flesh  and  constitute  the  flesh.  What  element  of 
the  flesh  could  we  possibly  spare  ?  What  one  of  them 
is  not  an  integral  part  of  our  natural  good  ?  But 
there  is  another  will,  or  another  aspect  or  function  of 
the  will,  which  is  not  of  the  flesh;  that  is,  it  is  not 
moved  or  determined  by  sense  or  sensibility;  it  has 
been  called,  as  I  have  said,  the  will  of  Reason.  Reason 
in  the  man  represents  the  man  himself,  in  the  totality 
of  his  spiritual,  moral,  and  personal  manhood,  as  over 
against  and  often  in  conflict  with  the  blind  suggestions 
and  inclinations  of  his  mere  nature  or  flesh.  The 
Greeks  called  the  true  will  of  the  man,  or  of  reason 
fi6v\ri<Ti<;,  and  the  will  of  sense  or  of  mere  nature  they 
called  linOvfjiia.     And  they  said   that  the  true  will  of 


Christ  the  All-Tempted  85 

reason  is  always  tov  aydOov,  of  the  good,  whereas  the 
will  of  sense  or  inclination  is  simply  of  its  object, 
without  regard  to  such  higher  goods  as  prudence,  or 
righteousness,  or  holiness  —  that  is  to  say,  the  proper 
goods  of  the  natural,  the  moral,  or  the  spiritual  reason. 
The  business  or  end  of  a  man  is  the  harmony  of  the 
two  wills,  not  merely  the  subjugating  or  subduing  the 
lower  to  the  higher,  but  assimilating  and  identifying  it. 
We  have  not  done  enough  in  violently  denying  and 
controlling  our  passions;  our  business  is  to  rationalize, 
moralize,  spiritualize  them. 

To  return  to  our  argument,  the  lusts  spoken  of  by 
St.  James  and  others  do  not  mean  any  longer  simply 
our  natural  appetites,  desires,  affections,  or  passions; 
certainly  they  do  not  mean  these  harmonized  with 
reason,  or  sanctified  by  spirit;  it  means  these  uncon- 
trolled by  spirit  or  by  reason,  excessive,  perverted, 
degraded,  and  as  such  made  our  own  by  our  own  self- 
surrender  to  them  and  self-indulgence  in  them.  It  is 
in  this  sense  that  we  are  drawn  away  by  our  own  lust 
and  enticed.  Sin  is  only  ours  as  we  have  ourselves 
made  it  our  own.  It  is  no  sin  to  be  tempted  as  Jesus 
was  tempted  at  every  point.  On  the  contrary  it  was 
the  condition,  the  means,  the  instrumental  cause  of 
all  His  human  holiness.  But  to  be  tempted  as  St. 
James  means  it,  by  our  own  past  indulgence  in  and 
personal  complicity  with  sin,  by  our  own  lusts,  in  that 
sense  it  is  sin  not  only  to  yield  to  temptation  but  to 
have  been  tempted. 

When  we  say  that  Jesus  was  tempted  at  all  points 


86  High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

like  unto  us,  without  sin,  we  mean  two  things.  First, 
there  was  no  sin  in  His  being  tempted;  no  part  of  His 
temptation  came  from  previous  sin  in  Himself.  The 
prince  of  this  world  who  finds  in  us,  in  our  past  sins, 
abundant  footing  for  future  operations,  could  find 
nothing  in  Him.  The  obstare  principiis  was  so  effectual 
in  Him,  that  sin  remained  for  ever  on  the  outside;  there 
was  no  such  thing  in  Him  as  His  oum  lust.  And  as 
He  never  sinned  in  the  being  tempted,  so  He  never 
sinned  in  being  overcome  by  the  temptation.  His 
significance  in  humanity  is  expressed  in  the  fact  that 
He  was  all-tempted  yet  all-sinless.  In  that,  He  was 
the  conqueror  and  the  destroyer  of  sin  and  of  death. 


V 

THE   ELEMENTS  OF  HIGH  PRIESTHOOD 
IN  GENERAL 

Hebrews  5-6 

We  come,  with  the  fifth  chapter  of  our  Epistle,  to 
begin  the  more  immediate,  though  still  gradual  and 
progressive,  definition  of  the  meaning  and  function  of 
high  priesthood.  And  let  us  remember  that  our  Au- 
thor's method,  while  it  is  both,  is  yet  more  a  definition 
of  all  past  expressions  of  high  priesthood  by  its  antitype 
and  fulfilment  in  Christ,  than  a  definition  of  this  latter 
by  the  inadequate  types  of  it  that  had  preceded.  The 
method,  in  a  word,  is  based  upon  the  principle  that 
beginnings  are  better  explained  by  ends  than  ends  by 
beginnings.  The  divine  truth  of  Jesus  Christ  and  His 
work  in  humanity  too  far  transcends  any  or  all  visible 
human  pre-intimations  or  prophecies  of  itself  to  be 
expressed  within  the  finite  limits  of  their  meaning. 
But  the  precedent  high  priesthood,  seen  now  in  the 
light  of  its  divine  fulfilment,  is  seen  to  go  along  with  it 
in  accord  so  far  as  it  can. 

"  Every  high  priest,  being  taken  from  among  men  —  " 
there  is  the  prime  condition.  The  use  of  the  present 
participle  (Aayu/Wo/u,evos  —  instead  of  the  aorist  or  the 
perfect)  carries  with  it  a  force  which  I  should  not 

87 


88  High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

attempt  to  express  but  for  the  existence  of  an  illus- 
tration which  may  help  to  make  it  intelligible.  The 
Church  has  adopted  the  expression  anciently  applied 
to  our  Lord  as  the  "eternally  begotten."  Now  the 
aorist  or  perfect  passive  participle  would  not  express 
the  meaning  of  begotten  in  that  connection  so  well  as 
the  present  passive  participle  would.  The  aorist  would 
convey  the  idea  that  the  act  of  begetting  had  taken 
place  once  for  all  in  a  supposed  eternally  past  moment. 
The  perfect  would  assert  that  the  begetting  is  eternally 
past  and  finished.  The  real  truth  intended  to  be 
expressed  is  that  the  Son  of  God,  not  was  or  has  been 
begotten  an  eternity  ago,  but  is  eternally  being  begotten. 
The  Son  was  not  and  is  not  eternally  separated  from 
the  Father,  any  more  than  the  rays  have  been  or  are 
permanently  separated  from  the  sun;  they  are  always 
separating  and  never  separated.  Now  no  figure  or 
illustration  will  bear  pressing  too  far,  but  the  use  of 
the  present  passive  participle  in  the  present  case  has  a 
somewhat  analogous  force.  The  real  high  priest  is 
not  one  who  was  or  has  been  taken  from  among  men; 
he  is  one  who  is  alwavs  being  taken  from  among  men, 
who  is  continuously  man,  and  continuously  discharging 
the  true  function  of  humanity  towards  God. 

The  high  priest,  being  thus  taken  from  among  men 
and  being  man,  is  appointed  and  stands  for  men  in 
things  pertaining  to  God.  The  high  priest  represents 
man  in  the  completion  and  perfection  of  his  relation  to 
God.  He  is  thus  the  expression  to  him  of  his  religion. 
And  the  end  of  it  is,  "  that  he  may  offer  both  gifts  and 


High  Priesthood  in  General  89 

sacrifices  for  sins."  How  truly  and  adequately  that 
expresses  the  real  function  of  religion,  we  may  examine 
for  ourselves  in  either  or  both  of  two  ways :  by  studying 
the  offerings  and  sacrifices  of  the  Old  Testament  and 
interpreting  them  by  themselves,  or  by  studying  the 
one  actual  offering  and  sacrifice  of  the  New  Testament 
for  itself  and  using  them  simply  as  the  figures  and 
language  prepared  for  the  expression  of  it.  I  wholly 
repudiate  the  idea  that  the  high  priesthood  and  sac- 
rifice of  Jesus,  while  they  are  expressed  in  the  terms, 
can  be  brought  down  to  the  limited  meaning  of  anything 
that  went  before.  We  must  use  the  terms  only  to 
translate  them  into  truths  and  facts  far  above  all  human 
figures  and  language. 

There  is  meaning  and  help,  however,  in  the  gifts  and 
sacrifices  of  the  Old  Testament  which  I  am,  I  hope, 
sufficiently  far  from  underrating  or  understating.  I 
have  elsewhere  developed  my  own  conviction  that  the 
three  great  offerings  and  sacrifices  of  the  Jews  were 
truly  intended  to  cover  and  include  all  that  is  essential 
in  the  function  of  religion  or  of  worship.  The  peace- 
offering  emphasizes  and  expresses  the  necessity  of  right 
relation  with  God.  It  indicates  what  that  relation  is 
by  the  act  of  making  the  common  meal  the  sacrament 
of  it.  The  common  meal  is  the  family  act  of  the 
common  life,  the  essential  oneness  of  the  father  and 
the  family.  Oneness  with  God  in  a  common  life  is 
the  primary  truth  of  religion. 

The  burnt  offering  or  whole  burnt  offering  adds 
the  truth  that  life  is  service,  that  to  live  the  common 


90  High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

life  of  God  is  to  do  the  common  work  of  God.  We 
only  live  God's  life  as  we  are,  like  our  Lord,  wholly 
given  to  do  His  will.  His  meat  and  drink  are  not 
those  of  idleness  but  of  devotion  and  consecration. 
Whoso  is  not  wholly  consumed  by  His  zeal  and 
spent  in  His  service  falls  just  so  far  short  of  the  ful- 
ness of  His  life.  Life  and  righteousness  are  identical 
terms. 

Neither  of  these  offerings  takes  account,  or  suffi- 
ciently emphasizes,  the  momentous  fact  of  sin,  the 
insuperable  barrier  between  us  and  either  service  or 
peace  or  life.  The  sin  offering  or  sacrifice  is  wholly 
concerned  with  the  fact  and  problem  of  sin.  It  is 
named,  for  short,  the  Trzpl  afxapTtas,  the  "about  sin." 
Its  function  is  not  alone  the  acknowledgment  or 
confession  of  sin;  it  is  the  whole  question  of  sin.  The 
immediate  task  of  the  sin  offering  is  to  bring  the  sinner 
into  such  an  attitude  with  regard  to  his  sin  that,  by 
repentance  and  confession,  he  may  be  capable  of  receiv- 
ing pardon  for  it,  may  not  lose  his  status  with  God  in 
consequence  of  it.  The  ultimate  end  of  the  sacrifice 
for  sin  is  such  an  attitude  to  sin  as  will  be  its  actual 
putting  or  taking  away. 

Taking  then  the  Hebrew  terms,  or  figures,  or  acts  in 
all  their  meaning  that  was  to  be,  interpreting  them  by 
their  ends  or  antitypes,  how  better  can  we  express  the 
function  of  priesthood  then  and  of  Christ's  priesthood 
now  than  in  terms  of  offerings  and  sacrifices  for  sin  ? 
But  we  pass  by  now  anything  further  than  the  mere 
mention  of  the  sacrifices  in  connection  with  Christ. 


High  Priesthood  in  General  91 

The  next  qualification  and  quality  of  the  high  priest  is 
that  he  is  capable  of  the  most  perfect  sympathy  or 
suffering  together  with  us :  "  Who  can  bear  gently  with 
the  ignorant  and  erring,  for  that  He  Himself  also  is 
compassed  with  infirmity."  The  ground  or  condition 
of  his  power  of  sympathy  is  his  own  experience  of 
infirmity. 

The  sharing  of  our  a<r6evct>a  or  weakness  thus  predi- 
cated of  our  Lord  demands  an  examination  of  its 
meaning.  St.  Paul  in  describing  the  law  and  its  right- 
eous demand  upon  us,  or  its  demand  upon  us  for 
righteousness,  speaks  of  the  inability  of  the  law  to 
enforce  or  make  good  that  demand,  in  consequence  of 
its  weakness,  not  in  itself  but  through  the  flesh.  No 
law  of  God  is  weak  in  itself;  but  where  obedience  or 
conformity  to  it  is  only  through  a  subject  other  than  it 
or  Him,  then  the  weakness  of  the  subject  is  a  weakness 
of  the  law,  and  even  a  limitation  of  God  as  through  the 
law.  We  need  not  be  afraid  to  say  that  God  Himself 
cannot  save  us  through  the  law,  when  the  limitation 
lies  in  His  own  constituted  nature  of  us,  and  not  in 
Himself  who  can  save  us  otherwise,  as  in  fact  He  does 
through  the  Gospel. 

This  inability  of  the  law  through  the  flesh  is,  as 
we  shall  see,  the  very  point  of  the  future  argument 
of  our  Epistle.  In  human  experience  law  makes 
nothing  perfect;  there  is  need  of  quite  another  mode 
or  process  of  human  perfection.  Now  this  weakness 
of  the  law  is,  in  reality,  not  its  weakness  but  ours. 
And  the  weakness  is,  primarily,  not  a  mere  consequence 


92  High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

of  sin,  but  a  deficiency  of  nature.  Human  nature  is, 
in  its  very  constitution  and  design,  not  once  but  twice 
deficient.  Nature  perfects  no  man,  as  it  does  things  or 
animals.  Only  the  man  himself,  in  rational  and  free 
fulfilment  of  his  nature,  can  perfect  himself;  his  self  or 
selfhood  is  non-existent  save  through  that  self-fulfilment. 
And  then  again  our  real  and  ultimate  self-fulfilment, 
our  truest  and  highest  selfhood,  cannot  be  accomplished 
of  ourselves,  through  our  mere  self-fulfilment  of  our 
nature  or  our  law.  Man  is  not  either  constituted  or 
intended  to  be  himself  without  or  apart  from  God. 
My  highest  and  most  real  personality  is  not  I  but 
Christ,  God  in  me,  —  and  God  in  me  not  alone  by  His 
act  but  by  mine  also. 

To  what  extent  our  astheneia  is  now,  however,  not 
mere  deficiency  but  fault  of  nature;  how  much  of  it  is 
the  accumulated  and  consolidated  effect  of  the  long 
and  universal  reign  of  actual  sin  in  the  flesh ;  —  is  a 
more  difficult  question.  I  think  we  should  reduce  to 
a  minimum  our  dogmatic  speculations  as  to  the  possi- 
bility or  propriety  of  things  in  this  world  having  hap- 
pened or  being  otherwise  than  they  actually  did  happen 
and  are.  I  fully  recognize  all  the  fact  and  meaning  of 
the  fall  now,  but  the  detailed  imagination  of  a  state 
before  the  fall  once,  or  of  such  a  state  as  a  possible 
permanent  and  still  existing  one,  has  no  warrant  that 
I  can  find  in  the  Scriptures.  It  is  the  same  with  regard 
to  the  conceit  of  an  unfallen  nature  as  assumed  and 
lived  in  by  our  Lord  in  the  days  of  His  flesh.  In  de- 
scribing the  matter  otherwise,  or  in  simply  another  way, 


High  Priesthood  in  General  93 

I  hope  I  shall  be  felt  equally  to  safeguard  all  the  truth 
involved. 

What  I  think  is  necessary  to  begin  with,  in  inter- 
preting the  Scriptures  as  well  as  in  stating  the  Gospel, 
is  to  recognize  the  identity  of  our  Lord  with  our- 
selves, in  the  deficiency  of  our  nature,  in  the  insuffi- 
ciency of  ourselves,  and  in  every  detail  of  our  own 
external  condition  with  regard  to  sin.  The  difference 
begins  only  with  Himself  and  His  own  action  in  the 
nature  and  under  the  conditions.  I  will  once  more 
state  it  in  the  shortest  and  best  words  I  can  find  for 
the  purpose :  Our  nature  or  our  flesh  is  sinful  in  all  us, 
because  we  are  all  sinful  in  it;  it  was  sinless  in  Him 
because  He  was  sinless  in  it.  There  is  a  propriety  in 
calling  nature  or  the  flesh  sinful,  since  in  our  nature  or 
by  our  flesh  we  cannot  but  be  sinful,  and  since  sinless- 
ness  in  us,  or  holiness,  can  come  only  through  denial, 
mortification,  crucifixion  of  the  flesh.  But  such  so- 
called  sin  of  the  flesh  is  only  the  sin  or  fault  of  our 
nature  not  of  ourselves,  until  we  have  so  taken  it  into 
ourselves  as  to  have  made  it  our  own.  Suppose  any 
one  of  us  has  not  done  so;  has  so  resisted,  denied, 
mortified,  crucified  it,  as  that  it  ever  remains  outside 
ourself ;  suppose,  in  addition,  that  just  the  having  been 
in  that  relation  to  sin  that  we  had  to,  and  could,  and 
did  so  resist  and  mortify  and  crucify  it,  was  what  was 
necessary  to  constitute  and  make  possible  our  human 
sinlessness,  in  the  sense  not  of  negative  innocence  but 
of  positive  holiness,  —  what  then  ?  We  might  answer 
that  that  is  an  unsupposable  case  with  regard  to  any 


94  High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

one  of  us ;  and  so  it  is.  But  it  is  precisely  what  was  the 
case  with  regard  to  our  Lord.  And  if  He  had  not  been 
in  just  our  exact  state  or  condition  as  regards  sin,  up 
to  the  point  of  His  own  personal  relation  to  it  and 
attitude  towards  it,  He  could  not  have  been  our  holiness 
or  our  salvation  from  sin.  For  our  holiness  is  condi- 
tioned upon  our  being  in  just  that  anterior  possible 
relation  to  sin  upon  which  our  sinfulness  is;  the  one 
being  the  yielding  to  precisely  that  of  which  the  other 
is  the  denial  and  the  conquest. 

There  is  no  question  but  that  the  New  Testament 
speaks  consistently  of  our  Lord's  having  taken  sin 
upon  Himself,  and  that  in  an  actual  sense.  But 
the  sin  is  never  His  own,  because  it  is  never  made 
His  own.  It  is  always  our  sin,  the  sin  of  the  world. 
By  the  fact  of  His  incarnation  or  being  in  the  flesh, 
by  the  fact  of  His  being  of  one  nature,  in  one  con- 
dition, subject  to  one  temptation  with  us,  lie  took 
our  sin  up  to  the  point  of  His  own  unique,  decisive, 
and  redemptive  action  upon  it.  Whereas  we  all  are 
under  sin  to  obey  it,  He  took  our  sin  upon  Him  to  take 
it  away.  By  His  act,  not  so  much  in  our  stead  as  in 
our  place,  He  broke  its  power  and  abolished  its  domin- 
ion. God  sending  His  Son  in  the  likeness,  which  means 
in  the  identity,  of  the  flesh  of  sin,  and  for  sin,  con- 
demned sin  in  the  flesh;  by  His  victorious  holiness  broke 
the  power  and  destroyed  the  reign  of  sin;  so  that  the 
righteous  demand  of  the  law,  the  law's  demand  of 
righteousness,  mi^ht  now  be  fulfilled  in  us  who  walk 
not  after  the  flesh,  but  after  the  spirit. 


High  Priesthood  in  General  95 

We  can  see  how  our  Lord  fulfilled  the  peace-offering : 
offered  to  God  the  perfect  gift  of  filial  love,  of  unity  of 
life  with  the  Father  and  with  the  brethren.  We  can 
see  how  He  fulfilled  the  burnt  offering;  how  He  spent 
and  was  spent  in  the  service  of  God  and  man;  how  He 
was  obedient  unto  death.  The  more  difficult  and  deli- 
cate point  is  to  see  how  He  fulfilled  the  sin  offering. 
And  the  enacting  of  the  spiritual  truth  of  the  sin  offer- 
ing or  sacrifice  for  sin  is  the  pre-condition,  the  fore- 
act,  of  the  rendering  of  either  or  both  of  the  other  two 
offerings. 

The  Apostle  has  been  talking  of  the  weakness  or 
infirmity  of  the  high  priest,  shared  with  us  all,  as  the 
necessary  qualification  for  his  being  our  high  priest, 
or  truly  representing  us  in  our  approach  to  God.  And 
he  goes  on  to  say,  On  account  of  it,  or  on  account  of 
this  —  this  astheneia,  which  is  the  thing  here  specially 
emphasized  in  the  high  priest  —  he  is  bound,  as  for 
the  people,  so  also  for  himself,  to  offer  for  sins.  What 
is  meant  by  this  necessity  on  the  part  of  the  true  High 
Priest  of  offering  for  Himself  as  well  as  for  the  people, 
of  offering  for  Himself  first,  before  He  could  offer  for 
the  people?  For  remember  we  have  here  wholly  a 
comparison,  not  a  contrast.  Every  word  indicates  what 
is  essential  to  the  meaning  and  end  of  high  priesthood, 
and  what  therefore  characterizes  the  true  High  Priest. 

We  may  illustrate  the  truth  by  the  way  St.  John 
expresses  it — without  any  reference  on  his  part  to  the 
figure  of  the  high  priest.  Our  Lord  is  described  by 
him  as  the  revealer  or  manifester  of  Life,  or  The  Life. 


96  High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

But  He  is  manifested  not  merely  as  life-revealer  but  as 
life-worker  and  life-giver;  He  wrought  or  was  the  author 
of  the  life  He  manifests  and  gives.  Now  how  did  He 
do  that  ?  Why,  by  taking  away  sin,  which  is  the  one 
thing  that  can  and  does  annul  or  destroy  life.  Death 
does  not  destroy  life;  in  itself,  and  apart  from  sin,  it  is 
but  birth  into  higher  life.  The  devil  cannot  destroy  or 
impair  life;  no  external  cause  or  hostile  energy  can  do 
so.  Nothing  can  injure  life  but  our  own  act.  The 
devil  yielded  to  does  injure  it;  but  then  the  devil  re- 
sisted and  overcome  ministers  to  and  helps  it.  The 
cause  of  the  injury  or  the  help  is  our  attitude  or  act  in 
the  matter,  our  sin  or  our  victory  over  sin.  Sin,  then, 
is  the  one  thing  that  can  and  does  impair  and  destroy 
life.  And  our  Lord  works  life  for  and  in  us  by  taking 
away  sin  and  instituting  and  imparting  holiness.  We 
know  that  He  was  manifested  to  take  away  sin.  And 
how  did  He  do  that?  Why,  first  in  Himself  there  was 
no  sin.  There  was  no  sin  in  Him,  not  because  He  was 
God;  not  because  as  man  his  nature  was  in  and  of 
itself  sinless,  or  incapable  of  sin,  or  because  He  could 
not  sin,  or  because  He  could  not  be  really  tempted  as 
we  are  to  sin.  Whatever  truth  there  is  in  any  one  or 
all  of  these,  as  an  historical  matter  of  fact,  as  the  fact 
is  given  in  the  New  Testament,  there  was  no  sin  in  Him 
because  He  humanly  resisted  sin  unto  blood,  because 
by  the  weapons  of  a  man  He  overcame  and  destroyed 
sin  in  Himself. 

How  He  destroyed  sin  in  Himself,  and  with  what 
weapons  He  did   so,  will  presently  appear  and  will 


High  Priesthood  in  General  97 

more  and  more  appear.  What  alone  I  wish  to  say 
at  this  moment  is  that  the  act  by  which  He  did 
so,  whether  we  look  upon  the  lifelong  act  of  His 
accomplished  holiness  or  the  culminating  act  of  its 
completion  upon  the  cross,  that  act  was  the  perfect 
irf.pl  d/xapTtas,  the  perfect  offering  for  sin.  And  that 
that  act  was  for  Himself  first,  and  then  for  the  people. 
He  needed  Himself  first  to  work  for  and  in  Himself 
the  righteousness  and  the  life,  which  only  then  and 
thus  could  He  either  manifest  or  impart.  The  great 
fact  to  which  we  are  gradually  coming  in  our  Epistle  is 
that  our  High  Priest,  through  the  Eternal  Spirit,  offered 
up  Himself  without  spot  to  God.  That  "  without  spot " 
is  vital;  it  is  not  that  He  just  so  offered  up  Himself  in 
perfect  love  and  obedience,  but  that  He  first  accom- 
plished that  which  renders  such  love  and  service  pos- 
sible, by  the  taking  away  that  which  now  renders  it 
impossible.  In  order  to  do  that,  had  He  nothing  to 
resist,  nothing  to  deny,  nothing  to  mortify  and  crucify  ? 
If  so,  then  there  was  nothing  in  Him  or  in  His  tempta- 
tion like  us  or  ours.  But  all  His  resistances  and  vic- 
tories were  ab  initio  or  in  principiis;  they  were  to 
sin  without  Himself.  They  could  only  have  been  to 
sin  within  Himself,  if  He  had  Himself  first  admitted  sin 
within  Himself.  The  completeness  of  His  resistance 
and  victory  consists  in  His  never  having  done  so.  But 
this  whole  account  of  the  rationale  of  our  Lord's  sin- 
lessness  or  sin  offering  will  become  more  apparent 
when  our  Epistle  comes  in  a  few  moments  to  illustrate 
it  by  reference  to  the  facts  of  His  life. 
8 


98         High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

Another  mark  of  the  high  priest  is  expressed  in  the 
words,  And  no  man  taketh  the  honour  to  himself,  but 
as  called  of  God.  Besides  the  more  apparent  inten- 
tion in  these  words,  I  have  ventured  to  see  in  them  a 
deeper  sense  which  underlies  the  whole  truth  of  the 
New  Testament.  The  term  called,  or  called  to  be, 
with  reference  to  the  divine  call,  expresses  the  fact  that 
all  that  we  are  to  God  or  from  God  is  of  Him  and 
not  of  ourselves.  We  are  called  saints,  or  called  to  be 
saints,  with  the  implication  that  no  sanctification  or 
sanctity  can  come  from  ourselves,  but  only  from  Him. 
We  are  holy  only  by  invitation  or  call  into  participa- 
tion in  Him  or  His  holiness.  A  called  apostle  is  one 
whose  message  is  God's  immediate  or  direct  message 
through  him.  Whom  God  foreknew  and  predestined, 
him  He  calls  and  brings  into  the  secret  and  operation 
of  His  foreknowledge  and  predestination.  The  invita- 
tion or  call  indicates  first  the  personal  or  free  relation 
to  it  of  man,  and  then  the  fact  that  the  man  is  called  to 
something  outside  himself,  and  to  participate  in  some- 
thing not  himself.  The  High  Priest  indeed  is  He  in 
whom  the  divine  call  or  invitation  of  humanity  is  most 
perfectly  answered  and  appropriated  and  most  com- 
pletely entered  into  and  possessed.  St.  Paul  prays 
that  we  may  all  know  the  hope  of  our  calling  and  the 
riches  of  the  glory  of  our  inheritance;  our  High  Priest 
knows  and  represents  that. 

We  come  now  to  illustrate  in  the  actual  facts  of  our 
Lord's  life  in  the  flesh  the  two  notes  of  high  priesthood 
which  have  been  just  emphasized,  and  in  their  reverse 


High  Priesthood  in  General  99 

order,  first  His  call  to  the  high  priesthood,  and  then 
His  participation  in  our  astheneia  or  natural  and  human 
infirmity.  "Christ  also  glorified  not  Himself  to  be 
made  a  high  priest,  but  He  that  spake  unto  Him, 
Thou  art  my  Son,  tliis  day  have  I  begotten  thee:  as  He 
saith  also  in  another  place,  Thou  art  a  priest  forever 
after  the  order  of  Melchizedek."  It  is  not  easy  at 
once  to  see  how  the  divine  address,  Thou  art  my  Son, 
this  day  have  I  begotten  thee,  constitutes  a  call  or 
appointment  to  the  high  priesthood,  but  the  Epistle 
makes  it  abundantly  plain  when  we  have  come  to  look 
upon  it  as  a  matter  of  things  rather  than  of  words. 

It  will  be  enough  for  the  present  to  anticipate  a 
passage  in  which  the  Apostle  sums  up  this  part  of  the 
argument  as  follows:  "For  the  law  appointeth  men 
high  priests,  having  infirmity"  —  that  is,  under  the 
power  of  sin,  not  having  surmounted  or  transcended 
the  consequence  and  condition  of  their  natural  asthe- 
neia; "but  the  word  of  the  oath,  which  was  after  the 
law,  appointeth  a  Son,  perfected  for  evermore."  The 
essence,  constitution,  and  qualification  of  real  and  ac- 
complished high  priesthood  consisted  in  having  trans- 
cended natural  and  human  astheneia  in  a  way  which 
is  just  the  matter  of  the  argument,  a  way  which  is  here 
described  as  the  realization,  the  completion  and  perfec- 
tion, of  sonship.  A  perfected  son  is  one  who,  by  the 
constituted  and  necessary  process,  yet  to  be  explained, 
has  perfectly  appropriated  and  reproduced  the  nature 
and  spirit  of  the  father.  One  who  has  accomplished 
this  perfect  sonship  perfectly  represents  humanity  and 


100        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

every  man  in  the  totality  of  his  Godward  relation,  and 
is  true  High  Priest.  The  passage  does  not  describe 
our  Lord  as  having  been  devoid  of  our  natural  and 
human  astheneia,  but  as  having  passed  beyond  it  by 
an  act  and  process  of  self-perfection  and  of  God-per- 
fection, by  the  complete  assimilation  of  the  divine 
nature,  spirit,  and  life  —  which  is  sonship. 

It  is  not  impossible  nor  untrue,  in  the  several  pas- 
sages where  the  words  are  used,  to  interpret  the  "this 
day"  of  our  Lord's  begetting  as  Son  as  referring  to  the 
timeless  moment  of  His  eternal  begetting.  But  that 
would  give  no  meaning  here.  Our  Lord  is  consum- 
mated human  high  priest  by  the  act  in  which  He  brings 
man  to  God,  perfects  him  as  son  in  his  relation  to  God 
as  Father.  And  that  is  by  the  act  or  process  which 
cannot  be  better  designated  than  as  a  resurrection 
which  is  also  a  regeneration,  a  dying  into  a  new  life. 
The  other  passage,  the  divine  appointment  by  designa- 
tion of  our  Lord  as  priest  forever  after  the  order  of 
Melchizedek,  may  be  reserved  for  fuller  discussion  in 
the  next  chapter. 

I  We  come  next  to  illustrate  the  reality  of  our  Lord's 
high  priesthood  through  participation  in  human  in- 
firmity. "  Who,  in  the  days  of  His  flesh,  having 
offered  up  prayers  and  supplications  with  strong  crying 
and  tears  unto  Him  that  was  able  to  save  Him  out  of 
death,  and  having  been  heard  for  His  godly  fear, 
though  He  was  a  Son,  yet  learned  obedience  by  the 
things  which  He  suffered;  and  having  been  made  per- 
fect, He  became  unto  all  them  that  obey  Him  the 


High  Priesthood  in  General  101 

author  of  eternal  salvation :  named  of  God  a  high  priest 
after  the  order  of  Melchizedek."  The  divine  meaning 
of  human  asthcneia  is  found  in  the  fact  of  man's  abso- 
lute dependence  upon  God,  dependence  more  particu- 
larly, since  we  are  speaking  in  the  sphere  of  the  spirit, 
for  all  things  that  pertain  unto  life  and  godliness. 
There  was  never  one  who  knew  so  completely  as  Jesus 
Christ  the  truth  and  the  extent  of  this  dependence. 
There  was  never  one  who  expressed  it  so  continuously 
and  so  strongly:  He  could  do  nothing,  He  was  nothing, 
without  His  Father;  His  works,  His  life,  His  goodness, 
so  supremely  His  own,  were  not  His  own.  He  knew 
that  in  nature,  in  self  alone,  without  God,  there  was 
nothing  but  inevitable  and  certain  sin,  a  sin  which  had 
for  Him  all  the  meaning  or  reality  of  death. 

As  He  was  the  embodiment  of  this  sense  of  depen- 
dence, so  was  He  the  embodiment  of  the  spirit  of 
prayer,  which  is  its  natural  and  necessary  accompani- 
ment and  expression.  His  supplications  and  prayers 
with  strong  crying  and  tears  were  true  experience  and 
confession  of  His  human  inability  to  save  Himself. 
He  prayed  to  Him  who  was  the  only  power  able  to  save 
Him  from,  or  out  of,  death.  That  did  not  mean  only 
out  of  natural  death.  Jesus  Christ  knew  that,  in  our 
nature,  in  the  flesh,  in  Himself  as  man,  there  was  no 
salvation  from  or  out  of  all  death  but  in  and  by  God. 
And  there  was  only  one  human  way  of  that  salvation, 
the  way  of  faith;  He  perfected  salvation  by  perfecting 
faith.  Let  us  see  more  in  detail,  how  He  did  that;  for 
which  we  have  abundant  material  in  the  case  before  us. 


102        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

He  was  heard  in  His  prayer  for  or  because  of  His 
godly  fear.  Jesus  Christ  was  the  one  instance  in  hu- 
manity of  a  perfect  being  heard  because  of  a  perfect 
hearing.  He  speaks  constantly  of  His  spiritual  seeing 
and  hearing.  He  does  nothing  but  what  He  sees,  and 
speaks  nothing  but  what  He  hears.  That  is,  the  super- 
natural, the  super-self  that  was  the  basis  always  of  His 
own  selfhood,  was  a  perpetual  sense  and  consciousness 
with  Him.  His  own  perfect  hearing  was  at  once 
effect  and  cause  of  His  perfect  being  heard.  And  He 
was  perfectly  heard  in  the  sense  of  receiving  in  response 
to  His  prayer  all  the  divine  grace  necessary  for  His 
perfect  salvation.  But  there  is  more  detail  than  this 
involved  in  the  meaning  of  the  word  eulabeia  which  we 
translate  godly  fear.  The  word  means,  exactly,  right 
apprehension.  The  perfect  faith  of  Jesus  enabled  Him 
to  apprehend  rightly  all  the  details  of  God's  dealings 
with  Him.  God  said  of  the  people  in  the  wilderness 
who  perished  through  unbelief,  They  did  not  know 
my  ways.  The  perfect  faith  of  Jesus  knew  God's 
ways.  Faith  might  be  very  well  described  as  a  right 
apprehending  or  laying  hold  upon,  and  holding  on  to, 
the  right  thing,  —  which  is  always  God  or  God's 
word. 

A  child  prays  naturally  for  anything  and  everything 
that  seems  good  to  him.  There  is  no  impropriety,  in 
our  ignorance,  in  our  letting  all  our  requests  be  made 
known  unto  God;  whether  or  not  they  will,  in  His 
wisdom  and  goodness,  be  granted,  the  leaving  them 
with  Him  will  bring  the  peace  that  passeth  all  under- 


High  Priesthood  in  General  103 

standing,  and  that  is  the  best  keeping  for  our  hearts 
and  minds.  St.  Paul,  and  even  our  Lord,  prayed  for 
what  could  not  be  granted.  But  God  often  hears  and 
grants  best  in  not  granting.  The  more  mature  and 
disciplined  our  prayer,  the  more  we  realize  that  the 
end  and  success  of  prayer  is  the  knowing  and  choosing 
and  loving  God's  ways.  If  in  the  hard  and  painful 
discipline  of  life  we  learn  how  to  bear  the  thing  we 
ought  to  bear,  and  do  the  thing  we  ought  to  do,  and 
become  the  thing  it  is  all  designed  and  divinely  adapted 
to  make  us,  then  we  have  learned  that  eulabeia  which 
perfectly  assures  our  being  heard  and  being  answered 
unto  the  perfect  salvation  from  all  death. 

The  Apostle  adds  that  thus  our  Lord,  though  He 
was  a  Son,  yet  learned  obedience  by  the  things  which 
He  suffered.  There  are  degrees  of  meaning  and  of 
interpretation  in  this.  In  the  first  place,  this  is  true 
of  all  sonship.  I  have  before  expressed  the  fact  that 
even  with  our  purely  human  sonships  the  being  sons 
does  not  save  us  from  the  necessity  or  absolve  us  from 
the  duty  of  becoming  sons.  No  personal  relation  of 
mere  nature  is  more  than  potential,  it  has  not  become 
actual,  until  it  has  been  born  into  action,  has  been  con- 
verted into  a  relation  of  personal  act  and  habit  and 
character. 

We  may  go  further  and  say  that,  however  essential 
and  eternal,  in  the  very  nature  of  God,  may  have 
been,  and  was,  the  divine  Sonship  which  incarnated 
itself  in  Jesus  Christ,  yet  in  Him  as  human  sonship 
it  had  to  realize  or  actualize  itself  by  the  necessary 


104        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

course  and  process  of  human  sonship.  Although  He 
was  Son,  yet  our  Lord  had  to  become  Son  of  God  by 
the  acts  and  character  which  constitute  human  sonship 
to  God,  and  without  which  man,  however  he  may  be 
'potentia,  is  not  actu  son  of  God.  The  learning,  the 
having  learned  sonship,  the  personal  becoming,  and 
having  become  sons,  the  act  of  ourselves  and  character 
of  our  own  performed  and  acquired  in  the  process, 
all  this  is  integral  and  necessary  part  in  any  being  sons 
that  is  possible  for  us.  And  the  divine  love  and  wis- 
dom shows  us  in  the  person  and  experience  of  Jesus 
Christ  that  the  learning,  the  acquiring  and  attaining, 
the  accomplishing  and  becoming,  are  all  impossible 
without  the  necessary  concomitant  of  toil,  pain,  and 
suffering  on  our  part.  We  can  begin  to  see  that,  and 
we  shall  some  time  altogether  see  it,  for  ourselves. 
Even  prior,  logically,  to  the  fact  of  sin,  every  real  act 
of  love,  of  choice,  of  service,  of  freedom,  involves 
something  of  the  nature  of  denial,  surrender,  sacrifice. 
Include  the  universal  fact  of  sin,  and  all  virtue,  right- 
eousness, or  holiness  involves  the  beginning  and  the 
unending  persistence  of  a  process  which  always  means 
and  can  effectually  terminate  in  nothing  short  of 
the  complete  death  and  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ. 
Only  in  that  supreme  and  extreme  act  was  Jesus  Him- 
self perfected  Son  of  God,  and  only  in  it  and  in  Him 
can  we  be  perfected  sons  of  God. 

And  having,  by  His  own  faith  and  obedience  unto 
death,  been  made  perfect,  He  became  unto  all  that 
believe  and  obey  Him  the  author  and  cause  of  eternal 


High  Priesthood  in  General  105 

salvation.  The  masculine  and  so  personal  form  of 
the  word  cause,  which  the  Greek  alone  gives  us, 
(dtVtos),  identifies  Jesus  Himself  more  intimately  and 
personally  with  the  act  and  fact  of  our  salvation  than 
can  well  be  expressed  in  any  other  language.  He  is 
not  the  abstract  and  formal  cause,  He  is  the  concrete, 
active,  real  cause  of  it;  He  has  not  so  much  caused  or 
effected  it  as  He  Himself  is  it.  Once  more  adds  our 
Author  —  "  Called  or  named  of  God  a  high  priest  after 
the  order  of  Melchizedek."  But  still  not  yet  is  he  ready 
to  expatiate  upon  the  significance  of  that  order  or  title. 
He  must  first,  by  practical  exhortation,  stimulate  and 
provoke  his  readers  to  higher  efforts  and  reaches  of 
thought  and  life  before  they  can  be  aroused  to  the 
pitch  of  spiritual  and  moral  comprehension  necessary 
for  so  high  an  argument,  "  Of  whom,  he  says,  we  have 
many  things  to  say,  and  hard  of  interpretation,  seeing 
ye  are  become  dull  of  hearing."  Whereas  they  have 
had  time  to  have  become  teachers,  they  have  still  need 
to  be  themselves  taught  the  very  rudiments  of  the 
Gospel.  They  are  incapable  of  solid  food  and  need  to 
be  fed  with  the  milk  of  babes.  The  babe  is  he  who 
is  without  experience  of  the  word  of  righteousness. 
Full-grown  men  for  whom  is  solid  food  are  they  who 
by  reason  of  use  have  their  senses  exercised  to  dis- 
criminate good  and  evil. 


VI 
FROM  FIRST  PRINCIPLES  TO  PERFECTION 

Hebrews  5-6 

The  thing  needed  in  understanding  the  Gospel  of 
Jesus  Christ  is  the  power  of  spiritual  and  moral  appre- 
ciation or  apprehension,  the  power  to  apprehend  that 
for  which  also  we  are  apprehended  of  Christ  Jesus. 
This  power  is  more  a  practical  or  moral  than  it  is,  also, 
a  theoretical  or  intellectual  one.  The  babe  is  he  who 
is  without  spiritual  experience.  Experience  of  what? 
Why,  of  the  logos  or  law,  the  method  or  process,  of 
human   righteousness. 

The  righteousness  of  nature,  the  righteousness  of 
self  or  of  the  law  or  of  works,  the  righteousness  of 
grace,  of  God,  of  faith;  in  general  the  whole  ques- 
tion of  righteousness,  and  even  more  the  how  than 
the  what  of  it,  this  is  the  real  and  essential  ques- 
tion of  the  Gospel,  not  only  with  St.  Paul  but  with 
every  interpreter  of  the  Gospel  in  the  New  Testament. 
And  the  question,  especially  of  the  how  of  righteous- 
ness, is  one  not  so  much  of  speculation,  or  even  of 
observation,  as  of  personal  experience.  The  deficiency 
of  nature,  the  insufficency  of  ourselves,  the  impotency 
of  the  law,  the  sufficiency  of  grace,  the  divine  power  of 
the  fellowship  and  sympathy  and  help  of  God  Himself 

106 


First  Principles  to  Perfection         107 

in  Christ,  all  these  are  not  deductions  of  thought  but 
simple  verifiable  facts  of  moral  experience.  The  con- 
sequence is  that  the  mature  Christian,  the  full-grown 
spiritual  man,  is  he  who  by  actual  use  and  exercise 
has  had  his  spiritual  senses  and  perceptions,  his 
moral  reason  and  judgment  and  apprehension,  trained 
and  disciplined  not  only  to  think  and  talk  about 
but  to  prove  and  test  and  verify  the  way  of  right- 
eousness. The  senses  exercised  to  discern,  not  truth 
or  falsehood,  but  good  and  evil,  indicates  a  knowl- 
edge not  of  words  or  of  thoughts  but  of  things  and  of 
life. 

There  is  an  interesting  summary  next  of  Avhat  were 
accounted  at  the  beginning  of  the  Gospel  to  be  the 
first  principles  of  Christ,  the  rudiments  and  funda- 
mentals of  faith  or  of  the  Gospel  of  grace;  but  our 
theme  is  rather  of  the  perfection  than  of  the  elements  of 
Christ,  and  we  can  touch  only  briefly  upon  them. 
And  I  shall  do  so  with  reference  rather  to  their  inward 
principle  than  their  outward  form.  Repentance  from 
dead  works  is  not  alone  renunciation  of  sin  or  of  sinful 
works.  It  is  something  deeper  than  that;  it  is  renun- 
ciation of  nature,  or  of  the  flesh,  or  of  ourselves  as  the 
possible  source  or  power  of  holiness  or  righteousness 
or  life.  It  is  the  felt  and  known  experience  of  the  fact 
that  in  ourselves  or  in  the  flesh  we  are  dead  as  regards 
the  life  of  the  spirit,  simply  for  the  fact  that  the  life  of 
the  spirit  comes  not  from  ourselves  or  our  flesh  but 
from  God.  The  flesh,  sinless  in  itself,  is  sinful  in  us, 
because  we  are  incapable  of  being  sinless  in  it.     The 


108        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

second  fundamental,  faith  toward  God,  is  supplemen- 
tary to  and  explanatory  of  the  first.  It  means  here  a 
definite  and  specific  faith  toward  God,  which  is  brought 
out  more  clearly  in  a  later  parallel  passage  in  our 
Epistle.  There  the  blood  of  Christ  is  described  as 
cleansing  our  conscience  from  dead  works  to  serve  a 
living  God.  Over  against  the  consciousness  of  the 
deadness  and  inefficacy  of  ourselves  and  of  our  best 
efforts  is  placed  the  experience  of  the  power  of  a  living 
God.  It  is  as  when  St.  Peter  says  that  God  raised 
Christ  from  the  dead  and  gave  Him  glory,  so  that  our 
faith  and  hope  might  be  in  God;  that  is,  so  that  we 
might  see  in  Christ  God's  life  out  of  our  own  deadness. 
Or  it  is,  as  St.  Paul  says,  that  we  have  the  sentence  of 
death  in  ourselves,  that  we  should  not  trust  in  ourselves, 
but  in  God  which  raiseth  the  dead.  The  negative 
consciousness  of  the  deadness  and  inoperativeness  of 
even  our  own  good  works,  of  mere  nature  or  of  self, 
is  supplemented  by  the  positive  experience  of  the 
efficacy  and  power  of  the  Spirit  and  grace  of  God  in 
Christ. 

The  second  two  fundamentals  are  the  doctrine  of 
baptisms  and  the  laying  on  of  hands.  Without  going 
into  any  detailed  consideration  of  these  as  distinctive 
Christian  rites  or  ordinances,  we  may  deduce  from 
them  what  must  of  necessity  be  the  meaning  and  func- 
tion of  all  Christian  ordinances  and  institutions.  Any 
teaching  of  baptisms  must  be  upon  the  line  of  that 
first  questioning  of  John  the  Baptist's  disciples  about 
purifying.     Practical  Christianity  has  first  of  all  to  do 


First  Principles  to  Perfection         109 

with  the  personal  relation  of  believers  with  the  Lamb 
of  God  that  taketh  away  the  sins  of  the  world. 

All  questions  of  purifying  or  teachings  about  baptisms 
must  terminate  in  that  essential  and  necessary  truth  of 
Christian  Baptism,  which  would  be  just  as  much  a 
truth  though  there  had  never  been  instituted  any  out- 
ward ordinance  of  baptism.  That  truth  is  that  we 
must  be  in  Christ,  and  not  only  so,  but  we  must  be  in 
Christ's  death  and  resurrection,  for  purifying  and 
cleansing.  There  is  no  purging  from  sin  save  in  His 
death  to  it  and  life  from  it.  As  faith  supplements 
repentance,  the  one  being  the  life  to  God  which  is  the 
death  of  sin,  and  the  other  the  death  to  sin  which  is 
the  life  of  God,  so  the  sacramental  significance  of  the 
laying  on  of  hands  turns  more  upon  the  divine  side  of 
the  gift  of  spirit  and  grace,  while  baptism  dwells  more 
upon  the  human  side  of  repentance  and  faith,  of  death 
and  resurrection;  but  between  them  they  cover  the 
essentials  of  the  first  principles  of  Christ  as  applicable 
to  us  in  our  life  upon  earth. 

The  fourth  and  fifth  fundamentals  refer  to  the  prin- 
ciples of  Christ  rather  as  they  apply  to  us  after  death ; 
they  may  be  of  those  heavenly  things  of  which  St.  John 
speaks  when  he  says,  If  I  have  told  you  earthly  things, 
and  ye  believe  not,  —  he  had  been  talking  of  baptism 
and  the  new  birth  and  life  of  the  Spirit,  —  how  shall  ye 
believe,  if  I  tell  you  heavenly  things  ?  These  heavenly 
things,  of  a  future  resurrection  from  the  dead  and  eternal 
judgment,  we  shall  not  venture  here  to  more  than 
mention. 


110        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

Let  us  now,  says  the  Apostle,  leave  behind  us  these 
first  principles  of  Christ,  and  press  on  unto  perfection. 
There  is  a  double  practical  exhortation  intended.  In 
the  first  place  the  readers  are  urged  to  higher  efforts 
and  powers  of  apprehension.  These  are  things  that 
have  to  be  learned  not  by  the  ear  only,  or  with  the 
mind  only,  but  in  the  life,  and  through  the  actions  and 
passions  of  real  experience.  In  fact,  everything  is  con- 
tained already  in  the  first  principles.  We  have  learned 
it  all  in  our  catechism.  The  progress  to  which  the 
Apostle  exhorts  us  is  not  in  the  truth  to  be  apprehended, 
it  is  in  the  way  and  in  the  degree  in  which  we  apprehend 
it.  Long  ago  we  were  carefully  instructed  in  all  the 
articles  of  the  Christian  faith.  Long  ago,  perhaps,  — 
I  hope,  —  we  took  Christ  to  our  minds  as  a  true  and 
beautiful  ideal;  more  than  that,  to  our  hearts  as  a  deep 
and  tender  sentiment;  more  still,  into  our  wills  and 
purposes  as  a  principle  and  law  of  action  and  character. 
All  these  were  right  and  necessary  in  their  turn  and  in 
their  order,  but  none  of  them  was  more  than  a  begin- 
ning or  a  further  step  in  the  process  of  the  true  appre- 
hension  of   Jesus   Christ. 

There  is  very  much  true  knowledge  of  the  ear, 
and  of  the  head,  and  of  the  heart,  and  of  the  will 
or  of  the  intention,  that  is  still  very  far  short  of 
what  the  Apostle  desires  in  his  disciples  of  what 
he  calls  experience  of  the  word  of  righteousness,  that 
is,  life-knowledge  of  the  way,  the  logos,  the  law  or 
process,  of  the  life  of  God  in  us.  These  very  things 
that  are  all  in  our  catechism,  that  are  on  our  tongues, 


First  Principles  to  Perfection         111 

that  are  in  our  heads,  that  are  a  good  deal  in  our 
hearts,  that  are  even  more,  in  a  way,  in  our  wills  and 
our  intentions,  —  how  much  do  we  really  apprehend 
them  in  our  lives,  that  is  to  say  in  what  we  suffer  or  do, 
what  we  are  or  are  day  by  day  becoming?  Destiny 
comes  only  through  character;  character  comes  only 
through  habits  of  our  own  formation;  habits  come  only 
through  acts  of  our  own  performing;  instruction,  ideas, 
sentiments,  desire,  will,  purpose,  all  these  are  only 
antecedents  and  approaches  to  the  real  life-process  of 
apprehending  and  knowing  Christ. 

So  this  perfection  of  which  our  Epistle  makes  so 
much  is  not  perfection  in  the  truth;  the  truth  is  already 
perfect;  it  is  perfection  in  us  through  our  perfect  appre- 
hension of  the  truth.  And  the  perfection,  I  repeat,  is  no 
mere  head  or  heart  or  will  perfection ;  what  are  all  these 
but  mere  organs  or  potentialities  of  life;  real  perfection 
is  not  something  projected  in  the  organ,  but  something 
fulfilled  in  the  function,  that  is  to  say,  in  the  life  itself. 
Our  author  is  not  interested  even  in  priesthood  or  sac- 
rifice, which  is  the  letter  and  matter  of  his  whole  argu- 
ment. What  he  is  concerned  about  is  the  facts  and 
truths  of  life  and  of  experience,  which  he  finds  these 
the  best  figures  for  expressing,  the  best  vehicles  for  con- 
veying to  the  apprehension  of  his  readers.  He  wants 
to  translate  these  mere  figures  or  vehicles  into  truths 
of  life  and  experience  for  his  brethren,  but  how  can 
he  do  so  if  they  have  no  life  or  experience  of  their 
own  for  the  apprehension  of  them.  The  completeness 
or  perfection  of  his  exposition  can  only,  for  them  at 


112        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

least,  go  step  by  step  with  their  progress  in  under- 
standing, which  is  their  growth  in  life. 

May  it  not  be  that  the  solemn  and  impressive  warning 
which  follows,  against  standing  still  or  going  backward 
in  the  spiritual  life,  is  to  be  explained  on  the  lines  we 
have  been  indicating  ?  How,  we  may  ask,  is  it  possible 
that  those  who  were  once  enlightened,  and  tasted  of 
the  heavenly  gift,  and  were  made  partakers  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  and  tasted  the  good  word  of  God,  and  the 
powers  of  the  world  to  come,  could  then  fall  away? 
The  answer  may  be  that  there  may  be  an  enlightenment 
not  deeper  than  the  mind  or  the  understanding,  a 
tasting  only  with  the  feelings  or  the  sentiments,  a  par- 
ticipation of  the  Holy  Ghost  to  the  extent  of  a  genuine 
and  powerful  drawing  of  the  will  and  shaping  of  the 
intentions,  a  lively  appreciation  of  the  beauty  and 
goodness  of  the  word  of  God,  and  an  actual  experience 
of  the  powers  of  the  world  to  come,  and  yet  that  all 
these  have  not  as  a  whole  penetrated  deeper  than  what 
have  been  described  as  the  outworks  and  approaches 
of  life  itself.  Which  of  all  these  have  not  ourselves 
known,  felt,  tasted,  experienced  somewhat  of?  How 
much  do  our  lives,  ourselves  within  all  the  outward 
organs  and  activities  of  ourselves,  know  of  the  com- 
pleteness, the  perfection  of  Christ?  And  the  thing  to 
be  learned  is  that  the  gist  and  rub  of  life  consists,  as 
Bishop  Butler  says,  in  the  passage  from  passive  im- 
pressions to  active  principles,  in  the  conversion  of  ideas, 
sentiments,  desires,  and  purposes  into  actual  habit  and 
character  and  personality. 


First  Principles  to  Perfection         113 

Attention  has  been  drawn  by  Bishop  Westcott  to  the 
significance  of  the  fact  that  "  in  the  enumeration  of  the 
divine  gifts  received  by  those  who  are  conceived  as 
afterwards  falling  away  there  is  no  one  which  passes 
out  of  the  individual.  All  are  gifts  of  power,  of  per- 
sonal endowment.  There  is  no  gift  of  love."  The 
writer  goes  on  immediately  to  disclaim  any  assignment 
of  his  readers  to  the  category  he  has  been  describing: 
"  But  we  are  persuaded  of  you,  beloved,  better  things, 
and  things  that  accompany  salvation,  though  we  thus 
speak:  for  God  is  not  unrighteous  to  forget  your  work 
and  the  love  which  ye  showed  towards  His  name,  in 
that  ye  ministered  unto  the  saints,  and  still  do  minister." 
Bishop  Westcott  goes  on  to  remark  of  this  that  it  was 
the  presence  of  love  among  the  Hebrews,  to  whom  he 
is  writing,  which  inspired  the  Apostle  with  confidence 
concerning  them.  It  recalls  the  sayings  of  our  Lord 
in  which  He  enumerates  the  wonders  possible  to  be 
wrought  in  His  name  by  those  of  whom  nevertheless  in 
the  end  He  should  say,  Depart  from  me ;  I  never  knew 
you.  And  also  St.  Paul's  list  of  the  possible  personal 
endowments,  the  tongues  of  men  and  of  angels,  the 
gift  of  prophecy  and  knowledge  of  mysteries,  even  the 
faith  to  remove  mountains,  the  liberality  to  feed  the 
poor,  and  the  zeal  to  give  the  body  to  be  burned,  and 
all  without  that  charity,  that  practical  love,  without 
which  everything  else  is  unprofitable  and  dead.  Even 
love  itself  to  Himself  alone,  if  it  were  possible,  God  in 
Christ  would  not  accept:  If  ye  have  not  done  it  to 
every  the  least  of  these  my  brethren,  ye  have  not  done 
9 


114        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

it  unto  me.  We  have  not  applied  the  principles  and 
attained  the  perfection  of  Christ  until  we  are  what 
God  is. 

The  Apostle  recognizes  the  essential  of  love  in  his 
brethren;  but  the  beginnings,  the  degrees,  are  not 
enough :  "  We  desire  that  each  one  of  you  show  the 
same  diligence  unto  the  fulness  of  hope  even  to  the 
end :  that  ye  be  not  sluggish,  but  imitators  of  them  who 
through  faith  and  patience  inherit  the  promises."  Who 
through  faith  and  patience  inherit,  —  the  condition  of 
faith,  the  birth  and  growth  and  perfection  of  faith,  is 
inseparable  from  the  lifelong  exercise  of  long-suffering, 
endurance,  the  power  of  deathless  survival.  The  cor- 
relative and  producing  object  and  cause  of  such  a  faith 
is  the  divine  certainty  of  the  promises.  And  the  typical 
experience  of  Abraham  furnishes  the  illustration  and 
expression  of  that  certainty:  "And  the  angel  of  the 
Lord  called  unto  Abraham  a  second  time  out  of  heaven, 
and  said,  By  Myself  have  I  sworn,  saith  the  Lord, 
because  thou  hast  done  this  thing,  that  in  blessing  I 
will  bless  thee,  and  in  multiplying  I  will  multiply  thee; 
and  in  thy  seed  shall  all  the  nations  of  the  earth  be 
blessed;  because  thou  hast  obeyed  my  voice."  In  the 
womb  of  that  promise  was  borne,  and  in  the  fulness  of 
time  was  born  all  the  richer  promise  and  gift  of  life  in 
Christ. 

"When,"  says  the  Apostle,  "God  made  promise 
to  Abraham,  since  He  could  swear  by  none  greater, 
He  sware  by  Himself,  saying,  Surely  blessing  I  will 
bless  thee,  and  multiplying  I  will  multiply  thee.     And 


First  Principles  to  Perfection         115 

thus,  having  patiently  endured,  he  obtained  the  prom- 
ise. God,  being  minded  to  show  more  abundantly 
unto  the  heirs  of  the  promise  the  immutability  of  His 
counsel,  interposed  with  an  oath;  that  by  two  immutable 
things,  in  which  it  is  impossible  for  God  to  he,  we  may 
have  a  strong  encouragement,  who  have  fled  for  refuge 
to  lay  hold  of  the  hope  set  before  us."  The  essential 
point  in  the  matter  is  not  that  God  swore,  but  that  He 
sware  by  Himself.  Abstract  the  outward  fact  of  the 
oath,  which  is  but  an  anthropomorphic  figure  for  a 
deeper  reality,  and  it  means  that  behind  the  sanctity  of 
the  promise  as  such  to  humanity  of  final  inheritance, 
there  is  the  prior  and  deeper  sanctity  of  God  Himself, 
God's  own  eternal  nature  of  goodness  and  love,  to 
validate  the  promise  and  establish  it  for  ever.  The 
sanctity  of  the  letter  of  the  promise  rests  upon  the  under- 
lying sanctity  of  the  eternal  spirit  of  the  Promiser. 
God  cannot  be  untrue  to  His  promise,  because  He 
cannot  be  untrue  to  Himself. 

"  The  hope  set  before  us,  then,  we  have  as  an  anchor 
to  the  soul,  a  hope  both  sure  and  stedfast  and  entering 
into  that  which  is  within  the  veil;  whither  as  a  fore- 
runner Jesus  entered  for  us,  having  become  a  high 
priest  after  the  order  of  Melchizedek."  There  can  be 
no  question  of  what  the  hope  is,  as  to  its  content  or 
subject-matter.  There  can  be  no  real  end  of  hope  for 
us  but  that  of  personal  perfection;  and  when  the 
perfection  of  self  has  been  once  fully  identified  with 
the  perfection  of  love  and  of  service,  there  is  no  danger 
because  no  possibility  of  making  that  an  egoistic  or 


116        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

selfish  end.  It  is  only  another  expression  of  the  per- 
sonal salvation  of  finding  through  losing  oneself,  of 
getting  through  giving  our  life. 

This  hope  already  realized  in  the  personal  perfec- 
tion of  Jesus  Christ,  as  object-lesson,  as  potential 
cause,  as  personal  substance  of  our  own  perfect  life  in 
Him,  we  have  as  an  anchor  to  the  soul.  The  anchor 
by  its  own  fixedness  in  its  place  fixes  securely  to  the 
same  place  that  which  is  firmly  attached  to  it.  Faith 
in  Christ's  perfection  assures  our  perfection.  We  are 
without,  but  He  is  within  the  veil.  The  at-one-ment 
with  God,  the  redemption  from  sin,  the  resurrection 
from  death,  the  eternal  life  of  God,  are  all  ours  only 
as  yet  in  faith,  in  hope;  but  all  that  we  are  still  with- 
out, He  is  wholly  within.  And  the  faith  which 
attaches  us  to  Him  is  the  securest  of  cables,  because 
the  strength  of  its  fibre  is  the  love  and  grace,  the  very 
soul  of  the  power,  of  God.  Christ  is  where  He  is  in 
the  capacity  of  our  forerunner;  He  is  ourselves  gone 
before,  whom  we  have  only  to  be  true  to  ourselves  in 
order  to  follow  after. 

And  now  again,  at  the  close  of  this  third  section,  the 
Apostle  returns  to  his  refrain,  —  Having  become  a  high 
priest  for  ever  after  the  order  of  Melchizedek.  But 
now  he  is  to  take  up  his  parable  in  earnest,  and  proceed 
to  the  task  of  its  elucidation.  Let  us  hope  that  his 
hearers,  or  readers,  have  been  aroused  by  his  exhorta- 
tion to  at  least  new  determination  to  bring  to  his  inter- 
pretation a  more  practical  and  active  power  and  capacity 
of  apprehension  on  their  part.     There  is  no  history  or 


First  Principles  to  Perfection         117 

biography  of  Melchizedek  in  the  world's  records.     If 
there  were,  it  would  no  doubt  spoil  the  use  of  his  name 
for  the  purposes  of  our  Epistle.     He  would  then  have 
had  an  earthly  genealogy,  a  beginning  of  days  and  an 
end  of  life.     The  way  in  which  he  enters  into  and 
passes  out  of  not  actual  existence  but  historical  record, 
his  phenomenal,  once  for  all,  stereotyped  appearance  in 
the  clouds  of  tradition,  enables  us  to  abstract  from  the 
picture  of  him  everything  but  what  is  wanted  of  him 
as  type  or  symbol.     Let  me  repeat  that  our  Author  is 
not  interested  in  fulfilling  the  Old  Testament  in  the 
New;  His  effort  and  aim  is  to  illustrate  and  express 
the  New  Testament  through  the  only  medium  of  his 
time,  the  ideas  and  images  and  even  fancies  of  the 
Old  Testament.     We  are  to  take  Melchizedek  simply 
as  he  uses  him,  without  learned  or  laborious  questioning 
of  who  or  what  Melchizedek  was.     Taken  in  this  way, 
Melchizedek  becomes  to  us  a  transcendent  and  glorified 
expression,   a   heavenly   abstraction,   of  all   that  was 
concrete  in  his  person,  or  of  all  that  was  visible  in  the 
record  as  concrete.     Everything  unnecessary  is  stript 
off,  and  he  stands  as  the  idealized  and  exalted  essence 
of  not  only  Hebrew  but  universal  kingship  and   high 
priesthood  combined.     For  Melchizedek  is  of  an  older 
type  than  the  Hebrew.     It  has  long  been  remarked 
that  the  Most  High  God  of  whom  Melchizedek  was 
priest  unites  in  His  name  the  pre-Hebraic  and   the 
Hebraic  titles  of  God,  or  at  least  the  titles  are  combined 
in  the  account  of  the  appearance.     The  primitive  and 
universal  type  of  high  priest  in  its  highest  majesty  in 


118        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

the  person  of  Melchizedek  transmits  his  blessing  to 
the  Aaronic  priesthood  yet  in  the  loins  of  Abraham. 

The  father,  the  head  of  the  tribe,  the  king,  was  the 
natural  priest  or  high  priest  also.  It  was  not  only  an 
actual  fact  that  it  was  so  at  the  first,  but  there  is  an 
ideal  reason  why  it  should  be  so.  Bishop  Westcott 
quotes  Philo  as  saying  in  substance  that  "such  a  com- 
bination must  exist  in  the  ideal  state.  He  who  unites 
with  the  Unseen  must  direct  action.  He  who  commands 
the  use  of  every  endowment  and  faculty  must  be  able 
to  consecrate  them.  He  who  represents  man  to  God 
with  the  efficacy  of  perfect  sympathy  must  also  repre- 
sent God  to  man  with  the  authority  of  absolute  power." 

The  practical  impossibility  of  realizing  upon  earth 
the  working  ideal  of  a  priest-king  or  a  king-priest  may 
be  paralleled  by  the  impracticability  of  Carlyle's  ideal 
conception  of  the  King  by  divine  right  of  what  his 
name  implies.  Indeed  Philo  makes  Melchizedek  the 
symbol  of  the  power  of  rational  persuasion:  "Let  the 
tyrant  be  called  ruler  of  war,  but  the  king,  prince  or 
leader  of  peace,  i.e.,  Salem.  And  let  him  offer  to  the 
soul  the  food  of  gladness  and  joy;  as  Melchizedek 
offers  the  bread  and  wine." 

We  are  witnessing  another  parallel  impossibility  of 
earthly  realizations  of  heavenly  or  divine  ideals,  the 
failure  in  fact,  of  the  truth  in  idea  of  the  church- 
state  or  the  state-church.  No  doubt  it  was  age-long 
experiment  and  general  failure  of  the  older  ideal  that 
led  to  the  dissolution  of  the  union  in  one  person  of 
the  functions  of  king  and  priest.     Such  dissolutions 


First  Principles  to  Perfection         119 

are  in  progress  still  with  no  prospect  of  reintegration 
upon  earth. 

And  so  we  witness  in  the  Hebrew  polity  first  the 
separation  of  the  priest  and  the  king,  and  afterwards 
more  painfully  still  that  of  the  prophet  and  the  priest. 
But  it  is  the  weakness  and  sin  of  men  that  render 
all  such  ideal  combinations  impossible  as  working 
systems;  and  although  we  shall  never  attain  perfec- 
tion by  merely  establishing  outward  institutions  of 
perfection,  yet  when  in  God's  way  and  time  the  per- 
fection comes  it  will  bring  with  it  the  perfect  outward 
institution  of  itself.  For  Philo's  ideal,  however  im- 
possible as  an  actual  now,  is  nevertheless  true  as  an 
ideal.  And  when  the  ideal  comes  as  an  actual,  it  will 
be  that  of  prophet,  priest,  and  king  all  in  one:  He 
who  truly  and  perfectly  unites  us  with  God  as  Priest 
will  be  He  too  who  shall  be  able  to  direct  our  actions 
as  King.  He  who  commands  the  use  of  every  endow- 
ment and  faculty  will  be  able  to  consecrate  them.  He 
who  represents  man  to  God  with  the  efficacy  of  perfect 
sympathy  will  equally  represent  God  to  man  with  the 
authority  of  absolute  power.  Truth  and  Love  and  the 
power  of  a  perfect  Righteousness  and  Life  combine  in 
Him  to  make  Him  all  in  One  our  Prophet,  Priest,  and 
King.  And  as  He  is  one  for  us,  so  shall  we  be  all  one 
in  Him.  As  the  King  will  be  the  Priest,  so  shall  the 
State  be  the  Church,  and  Earth  shall  be  Heaven. 

Let  me  once  more  call  attention  to  the  reiterated 
expression,  become  high  priest  for  ever  after  the  order 
of  Melchizedek.     Melchizedek  as  he  hovers  before  us 


120        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

between  heaven  and  earth,  between  the  ideal  and  the 
actual,  as  combination  of  both,  undoubtedly  presents 
to  us  the  appearance  of  a  twofold  eternity,  an  eternity 
of  the  past  as  well  as  of  the  future.  Jesus  Christ  was 
High  Priest  from  the  beginning,  inasmuch  as  He  always 
represented  in  God  not  only  the  ideal  truth  and  destiny 
of  creation  and  of  man,  but  also  all  the  future  process 
of  the  ages  through  which  that  truth  was  to  be  realized 
and  that  destiny  accomplished;  but  the  truth  had  to 
be  realized,  and  the  destiny  to  be  accomplished  by  the 
necessary  and  appointed  process,  and  it  is  the  process 
in  which  we  are  involved  and  with  which,  therefore, 
we  are  concerned,  and  consequently  it  is  that  which 
our  Epistle  constantly  keeps  before  us.  The  point 
with  us  is,  How  did  Jesus  become  actually,  not  how 
was  He  always  ideally,  our  High  Priest;  and  how  are 
we  to  enter  not  ideally  but  actually  into  the  accom- 
plished work  of  His  high  priesthood,  which  means,  into 
the  accomplished  fact  of  our  oneness  with  God,  our 
redemption  from  sin,  our  resurrection  from  death,  our 
possession  of  eternal  life  ? 

It  is  to  be  observed  that  in  this  matter  of  process 
and  detail  Melchizedek  sheds  no  light  upon  our  sub- 
ject. He  stands  only  for  the  consummated  fact  or 
result;  nothing  is  said  of  his  priestly  functions,  of 
wherein  his  high  priesthood  consisted  or  how  its  powers 
were  acquired  or  exercised.  It  is  simply  the  name  and 
the  fact,  but  no  act,  of  his  high  priesthood  which  is 
given  in  the  primitive  record  or  referred  to  in  our 
Epistle.     Abraham  returning  from  his  victory  over  the 


First  Principles  to  Perfection         121 

invading  kings  and  his  rescue  of  his  brother,  Lot,  was 
met  as  follows :  And  Melchizedek  king  of  Salem  brought 
forth  bread  and  wine:  and  he  was  priest  of  God  Most 
High.  And  he  blessed  him,  and  said,  Blessed  be  Abram 
of  God  Most  High,  possessor  of  heaven  and  earth :  and 
blessed  be  God  Most  High,  which  hath  delivered  thine 
enemies  into  thy  hands.  And  he  (Abram)  gave  him  a 
tenth  of  all.  Even  the  bringing  of  the  bread  and  wine, 
however  significant  it  happens  to  be,  and  however  we 
may  be  tempted  to  connect  it  with  an  act  of  priestly 
offering  or  sacrifice,  neither  the  narrative  of  the  Old 
nor  the  reference  in  the  New  Testament  gives  us  any 
warrant  for  interpreting  in  that  way.  It  seems  to  have 
been  only  an  act  of  friendly  hospitality  and  ministry  to 
bodily  needs;  or  at  most  a  part  of  the  blessing  which 
the  priest-king  bestows  upon  Abraham.  And  this 
blessing  expresses  all  of  high-priestly  function  mentioned 
in  the  transaction  or  in  our  use  of  it.  High-priestly 
blessing  indeed  includes  everything;  and  there  is  no 
limit  to  that  everything.  But  it  includes  it  implicitly; 
when  we  want  to  know  what  it  is  explicitly  or  in  detail, 
we  have  to  return  from  the  ideal  abstract  of  the  Mel- 
chizedekian  to  the  concrete  actual  of  the  Hebrew 
high  priesthood  for  the  images,  figures,  and  language 
necessary  to  express  it.  This,  as  I  have  implied  be- 
fore, does  not  derogate  from  the  use  or  the  value  of 
the  nebulous  and  indefinite  figure  of  Melchizedek,  but 
rather  enhances  it.  We  ought  not  to  stretch  the  figure 
beyond  its  use,  and  it  is  fortunate  that  we  have  no 
data  or  material  with  which  to  stretch  it. 


122        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

In  Psalm  110,  Jehovah  is  represented  as  addressing 
and  blessing  a  theocratic  king:  The  Lord  saith  unto 
my  lord,  Sit  thou  at  my  right  hand,  until  I  make  thine 
enemies  thy  footstool.  As  the  blessing  and  the  prom- 
ises connected  with  it  proceed,  priestly  endowments 
and  functions  are  added  to  the  royal  ones:  The  Lord 
hath  sworn  and  will  not  repent,  Thou  are  a  priest  for 
ever  after  the  order  of  Melchizedek.  There  is  no 
scripture  that  was  accepted  as  more  distinctly  messianic 
than  that. 

What  do  we  mean  by  messianic  ?  We  mean  that 
underneath  all  the  really  significant  forms  and  figures 
and  letters  of  the  Old  Testament,  and  of  religion 
before  and  outside  of  the  Old  Testament,  there  are 
universal,  eternal,  divine  truths  and  facts;  that  there 
is  a  more  real  and  abiding  law  and  prophecy  than 
that  of  Moses,  a  more  real  kingship  than  that  of 
David,  a  more  real  priesthood  than  that  of  Aaron. 
The  truth  is  more  than  any  finite  or  temporary  embodi- 
ment of  it;  and  any  finite  embodiment  of  it  must  be  a 
temporary  and  transient  one.  No  embodiment  of  the 
truth  will  be  permanent  and  eternal  until  it  is  the 
perfect,  the  divine  one,  until  it  is  the  personal  Incar- 
nation of  the  Most  High  God  Himself.  The  Messiah 
is  the  real  Prophet,  the  real  Priest,  the  real  King,  that 
all  others  mean;  He  is  the  ideal  divine  in  the  actual 
human,  God  Himself  in  man.  The  Old  Testament 
law  passes  away,  but  Law  does  not  pass  away;  the 
Old  Testament  circumcision  is  abolished,  but  the  truth 
of  circumcision   is   not   abolished;   Christ  is   the   true 


First  Principles  to  Perfection         123 

circumcision  of  the  spirit;  the  sacrifices  of  the  Old 
Testament  are  no  longer  practised,  but  it  is  because 
the  real  sacrifice  of  Christ  has  taken  their  place;  the 
earthly  rests  of  the  Old  Testament  are  no  longer 
promised,  but  there  remaineth  a  rest.  There  is  still  a 
real  Abraham,  a  real  Moses,  a  real  David,  a  real 
Aaron.  And  when  heaven  and  earth  shall  pass  away 
and  our  temporal  humanity  with  it,  there  will  be  a 
new  heaven  and  a  new  earth,  and  a  new  Adam,  and 
a  new  righteousness,  and  a  new  life. 

What  better  type  or  symbol  could  there  be  of  the 
absolute,  the  everlasting,  because  the  divine,  high 
priesthood  and  kingship  than  that  phenomenal  figure 
of  Melchizedek  ?  He  comes  out  of  the  invisible,  time- 
less eternity  of  the  past;  he  belongs  to  the  timeless 
assured  eternity  of  the  future;  He  is  High  Priest  forever. 
He  is  source  and  fountain  of  all  high-priestly  blessing, 
that  is  of  all  blessing  of  divine  love  and  sympathy  and 
fellowship,  of  divine  service  and  sacrifice  and  salvation. 
Melchizedek  blesses  Aaron  in  the  loins  of  Abraham. 
He  blesses  the  blesser;  he  is  the  high  priest  of  the  high 
priest;  he  is  the  type  and  symbol  of  the  Source  and 
Original  of  all  the  finite  and  partial  human  blessers 
and  blessings  of  men.  And  Aaron  in  the  loins  of 
Abram  pays  tithe  and  homage  to  him  as  his  own  high- 
priestly  Source  and  Original.  Let  this  suffice  as  a 
preparation  for  the  fuller  and  more  detailed  discussion 
in  the  next  chapter  of  the  symbolic  significance  of 
Melchizedek,  priest  of  the  Most  High  God. 


VTI 

THE  REALIZATION  OF  HIGH  PRIESTHOOD 
IN   CHRIST 

Hebrews  7-8 

We  come  now  to  study  more  in  detail  the  several 
points  in  the  brief  record  which  make  Melehizedek  so 
apt  a  type  and  expression  of  the  true  great  High  Priest. 
In  the  first  plaec,  says  the  Apostle,  Consider  how 
great  this  man  was,  unto  whom  Abraham  gave  a  tenth 
out  of  the  chief  spoils,  Abraham  the  patriarch.  And 
not  only  hath  he  taken  tithes  of  Abraham,  but  he  hath 
blessed  liim  that  hath  the  promises.  One  of  the  most 
notable  features  of  our  Lord's  teaching,  as  in  the 
Sermon  on  the  Mount,  is  that  He  always  teaches  the 
law  as  one  who  is  Himself  above  the  law,  or  rather, 
who  is  Himself  the  law:  Ye  have  heard  that  so  and  so, 
but  I  say  unto  you.  Well,  here  our  Author  sees  in 
Melehizedek  the  type  of  one  who  is  above  the  promises, 
and  therefore  above  all  the  bearers  of  the  promises,  nay, 
who  is  Himself  the  Promise,  the  source  and  original 
and  content  of  all  promise  from  God  and  all  promise 
to  man. 

The  real  meaning  and  point  is  not  the  greatness 
of  Melehizedek,  of  whom  nothing  is  known;  and 
that,  for  all  the  efforts  I  hat  have  been  made  to  prove 

124 


High  Priesthood  in  Christ  125 

that  Melchizcdek  was  himself  some  great  one.  of  this 
or  that  superhuman  dignity.     We  need  all  the  tunc  to 
remember  that  we  are  not  interpreting  or  verifying  the 
Old  Testament,  but  seeking  in  it  to  find  ideas,  figures, 
am,  terms  wherewith  to  express  the  facts  and  truths  of 
the  New  Testament.     The  point  is  the  greatness  ot  the 
true  and  real  great  High  Priest,  who  is  the  Source  and 
Content  of  all  divine-human  blessings,  and  the  Original 
and    Archetype    of    all    human    blesseis.     How    great 
indeed   is  our  true  Melehizedek.  in   the  mind  ot    our 
Apostle   and    this  Epistle?     That    is   a   question   With 
Which   the  Epistle   begins  and   ends:  greater  than   the 
angels,   greater  than   Abraham,   greater  than   Moses, 
Joshua,  Aaron,  the  prophets.  -  htm  great  ?     We  have 
not  in  as  yet  all  the  evidence,  and  the  answer  must 
wait  for  the  close  ami  the  summing  up. 

The    second    point    in    the    remarkable    aptness    ot 
Melchizcdek  as  a  tvpe  of  our  Lord  consists,  of  course. 
in  his  exact  office,  or  combination  of  offices,  as  priest- 
king   or   king-priest.     This   has   been,    perhaps,    suffi- 
ciently chv.lt   upon  in  the  last    chapter.     But   now  we 
come*  in  the  third  place  to  note  an  equal  typical  pro- 
priety in  the  personal  name  and  the  official  title  ot  the 
priest-kin-.     Is  it  an  accident,  or  a  mere  chance  coin- 
cidence,   that    the    king    of    Salem    should    have    been 
named  Melchizcdek,  or  that  Melchizcdek  should  have 
been  the  king  of  Salem  ?     We  shall  not  stop  to  discuss 
that.     The  ancient  record  merely  records  very  simple 
facts,  without  an  appearance  of   suspicion  of  what   is 
to  be  their  significance  in  the  far  distant  future.     But, 


126        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

as  a  matter  of  fact,  what  a  significance  there  is;  and 
how  strange  it  is  that  this  so  brief  record  should  con- 
tain so  many  such  significances!  King  of  Righteous- 
ness as  to  person,  and  King  of  Peace  as  to  office  and 
function,  —  could  there  be  a  more  inspired  or  a  more 
inevitable  and  infallible  characterization  of  the  true 
Great  High  Priest  ? 

Let  us  try  to  take  it  in.  Righteousness  and  Peace 
—  do  we  not  realize  that  the  great  truth  and  end 
of  all  the  Gospel  of  God,  of  all  the  high  priesthood 
and  sacrifice  of  Christ,  of  all  the  mission  and  min- 
istry of  the  Holy  Ghost,  is  just  this  two-edged  fact 
of  the  word  of  God  and  the  truth  of  man,  —  the 
fact,  first,  of  eternal  righteousness  as  the  only  con- 
dition or  basis  of  peace,  and,  secondly,  of  funda- 
mental peace  with  God  as  the  only  hope  or  source  of 
righteousness.  Each  is  alike  cause  and  consequence 
only  of  the  other,  and  it  was  the  sole  sacrificial  function 
and  act  of  our  only  Great  High  Priest  to  bring  righteous- 
ness and  peace  together  in  the  supreme  fact  of  our 
accomplished  salvation.  We  need  here  only  briefly 
to  recall  the  mutual  interactions  and  relations  of 
righteousness  and  peace.  In  the  first  place,  there  is 
the  universal  fact,  rooted  in  the  very  nature  of  things, 
that  there  can  be  no  peace  without  righteousness. 
Nothing  can  truly  rest  until  it  rests  in  its  own  com- 
pleteness and  perfection,  whether  it  be  the  acorn  rest- 
less until  it  is  an  oak,  or  man  incapable  of  resting  until 
he  finds  his  rest,  that  is,  his  completion  and  perfection, 
in  God  through  Christ  by  the  Holy  Ghost.   Righteous- 


High  Priesthood  in  Christ  127 

ness  here  means  real  righteousness,  and  peace  real 
peace.  There  shall  be  no  rest  or  peace  for  man  until 
he  is  perfect  as  God  is  perfect.  None  can  know  the 
rest  or  peace  of  God  until  he  has  wrought  the  work  of 
God.  To  rest  as  God  rests,  he  must  work  as  God 
works. 

But  then,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  equally  true 
that,  as  there  is  no  peace  without  prior  righteousness 
as  condition,  so  for  us  there  can  be  no  righteousness 
without  prior  peace  as  condition.  Before  we  can  be 
in  God  in  righteousness  we  must  be  in  God  for  right- 
eousness. And  it  is  the  great  achievement  of  our 
High  Priest  that  He  has  brought  us  into  such  a  rela- 
tion to  God  in  Himself  for  righteousness,  through 
faith  as  a  divine  means  to  it,  through  peace  and  fellow- 
ship with  God  as  a  source  and  cause  of  it,  as  to  ensure 
to  us  in  the  end  the  real  righteousness,  the  righteous- 
ness in  fact,  which  is  the  ground  and  the  cause  within 
ourselves  of  the  real  peace.  If  it  is  the  priesthood  of 
our  Lord,  that  by  sympathy  and  suffering  with  us,  by 
dying  the  death  to  sin  and  living  the  life  to  God,  has 
wrought  the  righteousness  and  paid  the  price  of  the 
peace,  it  is  His  kingship,  His  victory  over  sin  and 
death,  His  session  at  the  right  hand  of  God,  with  all 
Dur  enemies  put  for  ever  under  His  feet,  through 
which  shall  actually  reign  in  us  the  righteousness  and 
the  peace  purchased  for  us  by  His  blood.  The  king- 
dom of  God  is  righteousness  and  peace  and  joy  in  the 
Holy  Ghost. 

The  next  point  of  typical  fitness  or  propriety  in  the 


128        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

figure  of  Melchizedek  is  that  he  is  represented  without 
predecessor  or  successor,  without  genealogy,  without 
known  parentage,  without  visible  beginning  of  days  or 
end  of  life.  Stript  of  all  these  accidents  and  acces- 
sories of  ordinary  human  life  and  office,  what  remains  ? 
Of  himself  it  is  witnessed  only  that  he  liveth,  of  his 
function  or  office,  that  he  abideth  a  priest  continually. 
In  this  he  is  made  like  unto,  he  appears  in  the  record 
to  resemble,  he  bcomes  a  most  expressive  type  and 
figure  of  the  Son  of  God.  Expressed  in  terms  then  of 
this  shadow  of  Himself,  what  are  we  to  say  of  the  Son 
of  God  ?  That,  in  person  and  in  office,  He  has  had  no 
predecessor  on  earth;  that,  on  the  contrary,  He  was 
the  predecessor  of  any  or  all  who,  in  person  or  office, 
have  in  any  way  represented  His  person  or  discharged 
His  functions  in  the  world;  that  all  divine  blessing  or 
blessedness  is  but  reflection  or  emanation  of  Him;  that 
He  was  before  John  the  Baptist  who  came  as  His 
messenger  before  Him;  that  His  gospel,  His  grace  and 
truth,  was  before  Moses'  law;  that  before  Abraham 
was,  He  is;  that  before  Adam  He  was  Man  from 
heaven ;  and  before  the  foundations  of  the  earth  He  was 
the  Lamb  of  God  slain  for  the  sins  of  the  world. 

It  is,  however,  with  special  reference  to  Aaron  that 
our  Apostle  more  directly  interprets  the  resemblance 
of  Melchizedek  to  the  real  High  Priest,  the  Son  of  God. 
The  letter,  the  shadow,  the  law  of  the  Aaronic  priest- 
hood bavins:  served  its  turn,  had  to  be  abolished  before 
the  spirit,  the  substance,  the  grace  and  truth  and  life, 
of  the  eternal  high  priesthood ( and  sacrifice  could  come 


High  Priesthood  in  Christ  129 

in  to  displace  by  replacing,  to  abolish  by  fulfilling  them. 
There  was  a  double  practical  purpose  to  be  effected 
by  the  Epistle.  First  the  Writer  wishes  to  commend 
Christianity  to  the  ancient  and  powerful  Hebrew  mind 
and  prepossession  by  revealing  its,  more  and  better 
than,  identity  with  the  established  high  priesthood 
and  sacrifice.  He  fully  recognises  all  the  sacred  mean- 
ing, use,  and  validity  of  the  old  institution.  It  is  to 
be  all  abolished  only  by  being  all  fulfilled.  It  has 
accomplished  a  most  necessary  part,  and  is  to  cease 
only  because  its  part  has  been  accomplished.  Christ 
is  not  the  contradiction  of  the  ancient  constitution; 
He  is  identified  with  it,  as  we  shall  see,  in  the  highest 
and  best  sense  in  which  the  end  is  always  the  gist 
and  essence  of  the  means  and  the  process.  Jesus 
Christ  as  the  end  of  the  law  for  righteousness  is  the 
very  proof  and  justification  of  the  law.  But,  on  the 
other  hand,  just  because  the  old  institution  was  what 
it  had  been,  and  what  it  ought  to  have  been  in  order 
to  serve  its  turn,  now  that  its  turn  was  served,  now 
that  it  had  itself  prepared  the  way  for  what  was  to 
succeed  it,  that  succession  depended  upon  its  making 
way  for  it.  The  Writer  to  the  Hebrews  is  an  able 
and  powerful  confederate  with  the  Apostle  to  the 
Gentiles  in  getting  the  Law  out  of  the  way  for  the 
Gospel. 

The  Law  and  the  Gospel  do  not  differ  as  to  their 

end.     The  end  of  both  is  righteousness,  spiritual  and 

moral  or  personal  perfection.     While  they  differ  they 

cannot  be  said  to  be  contradictory  or  opposed  as  to 

10 


130        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

their  means.  Obedience  to  the  law  does  not  exclude 
the  need  and  use  of  grace;  and  salvation  by  grace  does 
not  abolish  obedience  to  law,  but  on  the  contrary 
establishes  it  by  enabling  it.  Perhaps  St.  Paul's  long 
and  bitter  battle  with  the  literal  and  narrow  representa- 
tives of  the  old  law  had  produced  the  impression  of  an 
essential  and  permanent  contradiction  between  obedi- 
ence to  law  and  acceptance  of  grace,  between  works 
and  faith.  No  doubt  the  contradiction  has  been  much 
stressed  and  exaggerated  since  then  in  his  name  and 
by  his  authority,  but  it  was  very  far  from  St.  Paul's 
own  meaning  or  intention.  Not  even  our  present 
sympathetic  Writer  to  the  Hebrews  brings  out  more 
strongly  and  clearly  than  he  the  real  identity  of  law  and 
Gospel,  and  the  fact  that  they  are  not  opposing  means  to 
the  same  end  but  only  different  parts  and  stages  of  one 
and  the  same  divine  process  or  succession  of  means. 

If,  says  our  Apostle  to  the  Hebrews,  there  was  per- 
fection through  the  Levitical  priesthood  (under  which 
the  people  received  the  law,  that  is,  the  law  of  Moses, 
the  law  in  its  temporary  and  transient  Jewish  form) 
then,  what  need  was  there  that  another  priest  should 
arise  after  the  order  of  Melchizedek,  and  not  be 
reckoned  after  the  order  of  Aaron  ?  There  is  no  doubt 
that  there  is  much  said  of  grace,  and  very  much  made 
of  grace,  in  the  Old  Testament.  The  difficulty  is  that 
there  is  no  effectual  or  effective  provision  made  for 
grace  in  the  Old  Testament.  The  time  was  not  come 
for  it;  the  law  had  not  sufficiently  done  its  work. 

The  Old  Testament  is  not  the  Law  only  but  the  Law 


High  Priesthood  in  Christ  131 

and  the  Prophets ;  which,  we  may  say,  speaking  roughly, 
means  that  it  is  both  law  and  gospel.  There  is  such  a 
mixture  in  it  that  we  cannot  always  separate  what  is 
legal  and  what  is  evangelical.  St.  Paul  now  treats 
circumcision,  its  distinctive  rite,  as  an  ordinance  of  the 
law,  making  us  debtors  to  do  the  whole  law,  and  stand- 
ing for  the  righteousness  of  works.  And  then  again 
he  speaks  of  circumcision  as  having  been  instituted 
before  Moses  or  the  Law,  as  having  been  received 
by  Abraham  as  a  sign  and  seal  of  the  righteousness 
of  the  faith  which  he  had  had  prior  to  his  circum- 
cision. Moses  himself  was  prophet  as  well  as  law, 
evangelical  as  well  as  legal.  The  Holy  Ghost  was 
much  older  than  the  great  day  of  Pentecost,  just  as  the 
law  given  on  Sinai  has  long  survived  it.  But  here  is 
the  point:  Where  in  the  Old  Testament  is  the  evangeli- 
cal truth  or  fulfilment  of  circumcision  provided  for? 
Where  is  the  evangelical  relation  to  the  law,  as  differ- 
ing from  the  legal,  made  possible  ?  The  Gospel  was 
in  the  Old  Testament,  but  it  was  there  only  as  Promise; 
and  the  very  promise  could  be  based,  could  be  either 
put  or  understood  and  accepted,  only  on  the  ground 
of  the  inadequacy  of  the  law  which  it  was  to  supersede, 
and  fulfil  by  superseding.  John  the  Baptist  expressed 
it  all  when,  as  the  end  of  the  whole  Old  Testament 
system,  he  says,  I  can  baptize  only  with  water.  The 
signs  and  types  and  promises  and  prophecies  were 
much,  meant  much  and  effected  much,  but  there  was 
a  wide  difference  still  between  them  and  the  realities 
for  which  they  were  preparing. 


S 


132        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

There  was  a  change  then  to  be  made  in  the  Old 
Testament  priesthood  and  law,  a  change  not  only 
necessary  in  itself  but  foreseen  and  provided  for  by 
the  old  system  which  it  was  to  supersede.  What  else 
was  the  meaning  of  these  promises  of  another  priest- 
hood after  a  new  order,  and,  as  we  shall  see,  of  another 
and  a  better  covenant  to  be  mediated  through  it? 
The  change  of  the  priesthood,  says  the  Apostle,  carries 
with  it  of  necessity  a  change  of  law.  This  change  is 
what  we  have  most  clearly  to  consider,  and  we  will  do 
so  in  its  several  aspects.  In  the  first  place,  there  is 
the  actual  change  of  the  priesthood:  for  He  of  whom 
these  things  are  said  belongeth  to  another  tribe,  from 
which  no  man  hath  given  attendance  at  the  altar. 
For  it  is  evident  that  our  Lord  hath  sprung  out  of 
Judah;  as  to  which  tribe  Moses  spake  nothing  concern- 
ing priests. 

We  may  interject  a  little  interpretation  of  our  own, 
on  the  line  of  Philo.  The  real  high  priesthood  has 
been  transferred  from  the  sacerdotal  to  the  royal  line. 
The  priest-king  is  restored  because  the  ideal  is  real- 
ized :  He  who  represents  man  to  God  with  the  efficacy 
of  perfect  sympathy  is  He  who  also  represents  God 
to  man  with  the  authority  of  absolute  power.  And, 
continues  the  Apostle,  what  we  say  is  yet  more  abun- 
dantly evident,  if  after  the  order  of  Melchizedek  there 
ariseth  another  priest,  who  hath  been  made,  not  after 
the  law  of  a  carnal  commandment,  but  after  the  power 
of  an  endless  life:  for  it  is  witnessed  of  him,  Thou 
art  a  priest  for  ever  after  the  order  of  Melchizedek. 


High  Priesthood  in  Christ  133 

There  is  a  disannulling  of  a  foregoing  commandment 
because  of  its  weakness  and  unprofitableness  (for  the 
law  made  nothing  perfect),  and  a  bringing  in  there- 
upon of  a  better  hope,  through  which  we  draw  nigh 
unto  God. 

The  change  of  the  priesthood  involves  of  necessity  a 
change  of  the  law.  The  law  is  changed  in  three 
several  senses.  First,  the  law  of  the  constitution  of 
the  priesthood  itself  is  changed.  The  Old  Testament 
priesthood  was  most  distinctly  a  positive  and  not  a 
moral  institution;  it  came  into  and  continued  in  exist- 
ence vo/xo),  and  not  <£vsei;  its  being  was  by  enactment  and 
not  by  nature.  Its  worth  or  value  was  not  in  what 
it  was,  but  in  what  it  meant  or  represented.  There 
was  no  special  virtue  in  the  tribe  of  Levi,  and  even  if 
Aaron,  like  Moses,  was  chosen  for  personal  qualifica- 
tion, the  succession  after  him  was  based  upon  the  mere 
accident  of  birth.  They  were  priests  after  the  law 
of  a  carnal  commandment.  The  priest  after  the  order 
of  Melchizedek  is,  precisely  on  the  contrary,  one  who 
has  become  so  after  the  power  of  an  endless,  or  indis- 
soluble, life.  He  is  high  priest,  not  vo/xu),  but  <£vsc6; 
by  virtue  of  what  He  essentially  is,  and  not  of  what 
he  legally  or  officially  represents. 

The  distinction  is,  however,  never  forgotten,  to 
which  I  have  called  attention  from  time  to  time. 
What  is  meant  by  the  power  of  an  endless  or  in- 
dissoluble life  ?  Endless  or  indissoluble  has  reference 
to  the  future,  not  to  the  past.  Unquestionably  an 
eternal   life   a  parte   ante  as  well   as   a   parte  post   is 


134        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

throughout  the  Epistle  attributed  to  our  Lord  in  His 
higher  nature;  but  the  life  here  spoken  of  is  not 
that  of  His  higher  but  that  of  His  lower  or  human 
nature.  It  is  not  our  Lord's  divinity  in  which  He 
is  high  priest,  however  that  must  be  presupposed  in 
what  He  is  in  His  humanity  as  real  high  priest. 
He  is  our  high  priest  in  what  He  is  in  His  own 
person  in  our  nature,  as  our  at-one-ment  with  God, 
our  redemption  from  sin,  our  resurrection  from  death, 
our  holiness,  righteousness,  and  eternal  life.  The 
endless  life  is  our  life  in  Him,  a  life  not  only  of  which 
He  was  the  author  but  of  which  He  is  the  substance, 
the  power  of  which  is  not  only  His  own  but  ours  in 
Him:  He  gives  us  the  power  as  well  as  the  right  to  be 
sons  of  God.  Our  great  High  Priest  hath  been  made, 
or  hath  become,  what  He  is  to  us  by  His,  which  is  also 
our,  conquest  of  sin  and  achievement  or  accomplish- 
ment of  eternal  life. 

In  the  second  place,  the  law  which  has  been  changed 
along  with  the  change  of  the  priesthood  is  not  alone 
that  of  its  own  constitution ;  it  is  that  of  its  administra- 
tion. The  function  of  the  priesthood  was  to  administer 
the  law.  What  was  the  law  which,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
it  did  administer?  It  was  chiefly,  if  not  exclusively, 
the  ceremonial  law,  the  law  largely  of  circumcision  and 
of  sacrifice.  Throughout  the  New  Testament  there 
is  more  or  less  confusion  when  the  law  is  spoken  of, 
whether  the  moral  or  the  ritual  law  is  meant.  If  it 
were  not  that  the  two  were  in  fact  and  in  practice  so 
widely   dissevered,   there  would    be   reason   for   their 


High  Priesthood  in  Christ  135 

being  so  confounded  or  identified.  In  truth  they 
ought  to  be  identical.  Circumcision,  however  it  may 
have  become  only  a  rite  and  a  ceremony,  was  in  fact 
also  a  moral  command  —  the  command  which  the 
moral  law  embodies  and  enjoins,  Thou  shalt  not  lust; 
the  law  of  all  purity,  holiness,  righteousness,  real  or 
eternal  life.  The  law  or  laws  of  sacrifice,  as  we  shall 
see,  were  just  the  embodiments  of  the  principles  which 
make  true  life  and  constitute  the  moral  law,  the  prin- 
ciples of  love,  service,  and  personal  unselfish  devotion. 
There  is  only  one  law,  whether  it  be  civil,  ceremonial, 
or  moral,  and  that  means  righteousness;  they  are  but 
different  enforcements  of  the  same  obligation,  different 
ways  or  means  to  the  same  end.  But  they  are  in  prac- 
tice widely  dissevered,  and  the  question  might  arise 
whether  or  to  what  extent  the  priesthood  before  Christ 
did  administer  the  moral  law,  and  not  only  the  ritual 
or  ceremonial  law.  In  either  meaning,  the  law  which 
it  administered  was  changed  along  with  the  change 
of  the  priesthood. 

In  the  first  place  the  ritual  law  had  to  be  changed, 
and  the  important  point  is,  wherein  lay  the  necessity 
of  the  change?  It  did  not  lie  in  the  fact  that  it  was 
ritual,  or  that  it  was  formal.  Neither  did  it  lie  alone 
in  the  fact  that  the  rites  or  the  forms  had  become  so 
widely  severed  from  the  spirit  or  the  life.  We  can 
never  in  this  world  be  emancipated  from  the  use  and 
the  danger  of  forms.  The  truth  or  the  law  cannot 
come  to  us  but  under  forms;  and  rites  and  ceremonies, 
by  which  we  mean  forms  of  truth  or  of  law  that  appeal 


136        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

to  us  through  the  eye  or  other  senses,  are  no  more 
liable  to  become  merely  formal  than  those  which  are 
more  mental,  or,  as  we  sometimes  fancy,  more  spiritual. 
Even  if  the  whole  ritual  and  sacrificial  system  of 
Judaism  had  retained  all  the  morality  and  the  spirit- 
uality that  was  contained  in  it  by  reason  and  right  of  its 
divine  origin  and  source,  the  necessity  for  its  abroga- 
tion would  have  been  only,  not  the  more  real,  but  the 
more  felt  and  acknowledged;  because,  at  its  best  pos- 
sible, it  meant  infinitely  more  than  it  could  be  or  than 
it  could  accomplish. 

In  fact  the  ceremonial  law  was  an  advance  upon 
the  moral  law,  inasmuch  as  there  was  in  it  not  only 
everything  of  law  but  something  of  promise  or  gos- 
pel. Circumcision,  as  has  been  mentioned,  not  only 
legally  bound  to  the  whole  moral  requirement  of 
purity  and  righteousness,  but  it  was  a  sign  and  seal 
to  the  promise  of  righteousness  through  faith  in 
Christ.  And  so  the  sacrifices  not  only  expressed  the 
necessity  and  the  demand  for  all  the  perfection  of 
love,  service,  and  personal  devotion  which  they  sig- 
nified, but  they  implicitly  promised  another  and 
more  effectual  source  and  power  of  all  these  than  is  to 
be  found  in  oneself.  They  taught  to  look  outside  of 
self  for  a  gift  and  grace  of  holiness  and  righteousness 
and  life.  But  they  did  not  give  the  outside  source  and 
power  of  which  they  spoke.  How  could  the  blood  of 
bulls  and  goats,  however  it  might  signify  it,  be  the 
actual  taking  away  of  sin  and  sanctification  of  life  ? 

Even  the  Gospel  in  the  Old  Testament  dealt  only 


High  Priesthood  in  Christ  137 

with  signs,  which  could  mean  infinitely  more  than  they 
could  effect.  The  difference  between  those  sacrifices 
and  that  of  Jesus  Christ  is  all  that  between  meaning 
and  being,  between  shadow  and  substance,  between 
promise  and  reality.  Our  Lord's  miracles  were  per- 
haps always  parables  of  the  mode  of  operation  of  truth, 
law,  and  life.  When  He  said  to  the  impotent  man, 
Arise  and  walk,  the  word  meant  something;  and  that 
is  as  far  as  it  could  have  gone  in  any  of  our  mouths. 
In  addition  it  was  a  word  of  very  definite  command, 
and  it  commanded  just  what  the  man  needed  to  do  as 
his  own  bodily  healing  and  health.  Perhaps  there  was 
in  the  command,  simply  as  such,  something  of  promise. 
But  the  great  and  final  fact  was  that  it  was  a  word  of 
power  and  of  self-fulfilment;  the  man,  through  faith 
in  it,  arose  and  walked.  The  third  is  just  what  Jesus 
adds  to  Moses  or  John  the  Baptist:  There  cometh  one 
after  me  who  shall  baptize  you  with  the  Holy  Ghost 
and  with  the  power  of  holiness  and  life. 

Suppose  we  strip  from  the  law  its  ritual  or  cere- 
monial features;  and  leave  behind  only  the  spiritual 
and  moral  meaning  and  intent  that  underlay  them. 
St.  Paul  in  the  Epistle  to  the  Galatians,  in  which  the 
law  is  treated  in  its  most  ceremonial  aspect,  says,  If 
there  had  been  given  a  law  which  could  give  life, 
or  make  alive,  verily  righteousness  would  have  been  of 
or  by  the  law.  By  this  he  indicates  that  the  end  of 
even  rite  or  ceremony  is  righteousness  and  life,  and 
that  these  two  are  one.  Now  strip  off  everything  but 
the  most  spiritual  and  moral  truth  of  the  law,  and  still 


138        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

the  law  is  for  its  great  purpose  weak  and  unprofitable 
and  needs  for  its  own  sake  to  be  abrogated  and  replaced. 
The  more  the  law  is  reduced  to  itself,  the  higher,  purer, 
severer  it  appears;  the  more  necessary  and  imperative, 
the  more  divinely  to  be  desired,  but  also  the  more  hope- 
less, the  more  impracticable  and  impossible.  By  the 
law  alone  is  nothing  but  the  knowledge  of  sin  and  the 
experience  of  the  weakness  of  the  flesh.  The  term  law 
applies  with  propriety  only  to  those  who  are  capable 
of  being  its  subjects;  it  applies  in  our  experience  only 
to  men,  and  for  them  it  designates  the  mode  of  their 
own  freest  and  highest  personal  activity,  the  perfection 
of  their  spiritual  and  moral  life.  In  this  sense,  the 
law,  while  it  prescribes  and  demands  perfection  as  the 
condition  and  as  the  value  and  reward  of  life,  while  it 
denounces  and  inflicts  evil  and  death  and  hell  as  the 
consequence  and  penalty  of  imperfection  and  transgres- 
sion, yet,  merely  as  law,  can  never  bring  or  give  the 
perfection  it  requires. 

Man  can  never  live  by  or  upon  a  mere  mode;  he 
requires  a  substance.  No  mere  prescription  of  man- 
hood or  virtue  will  make  him  a  man;  no  categorical 
imperative  of  a  moral  law  will  make  him  righteous; 
no  natural  scientific  ethical  principle  even  of  altruistic 
unselfishness  and  self-sacrifice,  no  abstract  conception 
of  love  and  goodness  as  the  ultimate  law  of  the  uni- 
verse, will  ever  make  him  what  they  all  may  mean  or 
command.  We  want  the  substance  God  instead  of 
the  mode  or  abstraction  Law,  and  not  until  the  one 
in  its  weakness  and  unprofitableness  is  abrogated  for 


High  Priesthood  in  Christ  139 

the  other  with  its  power  and  sufficiency  will  the  end 
of  all  be  fulfilled.  There  is  a  disannulling  of  the  fore- 
going commandment  because  of  its  weakness  and 
unprofitableness  (for  the  law  made  nothing  perfect), 
and  a  bringing  in  thereupon  of  a  better  hope,  through 
which  we  draw  nigh  unto  God. 

The  Apostle  returns  to  the  incident  of  the  divine  oath 
as  testifying  to  Jesus  as  the  surety  of  a  better  covenant. 
As  God  had  sworn  by  Himself  in  His  promise  of  the 
blessing  to  Abraham,  so  in  the  institution  of  the  Mel- 
chizedekian  high  priest,  The  Lord  sware  and  will  not 
repent  Himself,  Thou  art  a  priest  for  ever!  The  oath, 
as  we  saw,  is  a  human  expression  for  the  carrying  back 
of  the"promise  and  its  immutability  to  the  divine  nature 
and  character.  God  sware  by  Himself:  He  is  the  Father 
of  mercies,  with  whom  is  no  variableness  neither 
shadow  of  turning:  the  word  of  the  Lord  endureth  for- 


ever. 


Finally,  as  to  the  contrast  between  the  true  high 
priest  and  those  who  had  prefigured  him,  they  were 
by  death  hindered  from  continuing:  but  He,  because 
He  abideth  for  ever,  hath  His  priesthood  inviolable 
and  unchangeable.  The  personal  abiding  for  ever  is 
something  more  than  merely  the  condition  of  our 
Lord's  essential  and  inviolable  high  priesthood.  The 
abiding,  or  continuing,  or  surviving,  was  in  itself  not 
a  mere  fact  or  incident,  but  an  act,  an  act  of  perfecting 
and  perfected  life,  an  act  of  victory  over  sin  and  death 
which  was  just  what  constituted  Him  Son  of  God  and 
High  Priest  of  humanity.     The  human  achievement  of 


140        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

life,  through  the  human  conquest  and  abolishing  of  sin, 
is  first  of  all  a  vtto  fxevuv  and  a  fiivuv,  an  abiding  under, 
an  abiding  through,  and  after,  a  survival,  of  all  temp- 
tation. It  is  the  omnipotence  of  faith,  the  inextin- 
guishableness  of  hope,  the  deathless  endurance  of  love. 

Jesus  Christ  was  the  author  and  finisher,  the  per- 
fecter,  of  these  supernatural  graces,  and  it  was  through 
them  that  He  transcended  the  deficiencies  and  limi- 
tations of  nature,  exceeded  the  imperfections  and 
insufficiencies  of  human  will  and  effort,  and  so  at- 
tained holiness  and  achieved  life.  His  high  priesthood 
rests  upon  what  He  was  and  is,  and  what  He  is  is 
the  product  or  result  of  what  He  did.  He  was  made, 
or  became,  Son  of  God  and  High  Priest  by  the  victory 
in  Him  of  the  faith,  hope,  and  love  which  are  their 
constituent  elements  and  their  abiding  substance. 

And  so  we  come  to  another  of  our  Apostle's  sum- 
mings  up :  Such  a  high  priest  became  us  —  suited  our 
case  and  met  our  needs,  —  holy,  guileless,  undefiled, 
separated  from  sinners,  and  made  higher  than  the 
heavens.  These  are  all  personal  human  qualities  and 
qualifications.  They  sum  up  the  human  character- 
istics and  character  which  are  in  themselves  eternal 
life.  The  description  is  that  of  one  who  is  not  merely 
sinless  as  a  fact,  but  whose  sinlessness  is  an  act,  and 
that  act  the  atoning,  redeeming,  regenerating,  sancti- 
fying, and  saving  act  in  and  of  humanity.  We  have 
now,  in  the  remainder  of  this  passage,  reached  a  point 
and  come  to  statements  and  expressions  which  necessi- 
tate a  more  exact  investigation  into  the  meaning  of  the 


High  Priesthood  in  Christ  141 

sacrificial  act  that  goes  under  the  name  of  the  cross  of 
Christ. 

The  Apostle  continues  his  account  of  the  high 
priest  whom  we  needed  and  whom  we  have  as  follows: 
Who  needeth  not  daily,  like  those  high  priests,  to  offer 
up  sacrifices,  first  for  his  own  sins,  and  then  for  the 
sins  of  the  people :  for  this  He  did  once  for  all,  when  He 
offered  up  Himself.  For  the  law  appointeth  men  high 
priests,  having  infirmity;  but  the  word  of  the  oath, 
which  was  after  the  law,  appointeth  a  Son,  perfected 
for  evermore.  There  is  so  much  of  comparison  or 
likeness  expressed,  and  so  much  of  contrast  or  differ- 
ence involved,  between  the  high  priests  before  and  the 
true  or  real  High  Priest,  that  we  have  to  make  our  way 
between  them  with  infinite  circumspection.  In  the 
first  place,  it  is  clearly  affirmed  of  each,  as  part  of  the 
likeness,  that  by  reason  or  because  of  the  infirmity 
inseparable  from  humanity  he  is  bound,  as  for  the 
people,  so  also  for  himself,  to  offer  for  sins  (Ch.  V.  3). 

The  meaning  of  this,  so  far  as  we  have  been  able  to 
go,  is  simply  this :  that  Jesus  Christ  had  to  fulfil  the  con- 
ditions and  accomplish  the  act  and  fact  of  holiness  first 
in  Himself  before  He  could  do  so  in  us,  the  people. 
St.  John  expresses  the  order:  First,  He  was  manifested 
to  take  away  sin;  this,  secondly,  He  accomplished  in 
His  own  person:  in  Him  there  was  no  sin:  in  the  flesh 
of  sin,  He  abolished  sin  in  the  flesh :  His  own  perfected 
holiness  was  the  condemnation  and  the  abolition  of 
sin;  and  then,  in  the  third  place,  Whosoever  abideth  in 
Him   sinncth  not;  whosoever  sinneth  hath  not  seen 


142        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

Him,  neither  knoweth  Him;  truly  to  know  Christ  is  to 
know  Him  as  the  divine  power  not  only  of  His  own 
but  also  of  our  holiness.  He  is  the  power  of  our  per- 
fect holiness;  any  and  all  imperfection  of  holiness  in 
us,  in  Him,  is  due  not  to  deficiency  of  power  in  Him 
but  to  defect  of  vision  and  knowledge,  that  is  to  say  of 
faith,  in  us.  We  are  slow  to  be  sanctified  only  because 
we  are  slow  to  apprehend  and  appropriate  His  power 
to  sanctify.  Sanctification  at  the  best  is  a  gradual  and 
lifelong  process,  because  our  spiritual  as  all  our  facul- 
ties are  subject  to  the  law  of  growth,  are  progressive 
in  their  functions.  Spiritual  maturity  comes  only  to 
those  who  by  reason  of  use  have  had  their  faculties  duly 
exercised  in  moral  distinctions  and  decisions. 

The  difficulty  in  construing  the  comparisons  and  con- 
trasts, the  likenesses  and  differences,  between  the 
functions  of  the  antecedent  and  imperfect  high  priests 
and  the  perfect  High  Priest  is  found  in  expressions 
which  we  must  not  blink,  if  we  wish  to  get  at  and  take 
in  the  whole  truth.  Not  only  was  it  said  before  that 
the  high  priest  is  bound,  as  for  the  people,  so  also  for 
himself,  to  offer  for  sins;  but  here  it  is  repeated  that  our 
Lord  needeth  not  to  repeat  His  sacrifice,  or  daily,  like 
those  priests,  to  offer  up  sacrifices,  first  for  His  own 
sins,  and  then  for  the  sins  of  the  people:  for  this  He 
did  once  for  all,  when  He  offered  up  Himself.  In 
order  to  measure  with  equal  hand  the  identity  and  the 
difference  of  the  two  acts,  their  repeated  sacrifices  and 
His  single  sacrifice,  we  shall  have  to  go  further  into  the 
details  and  meaning  of  them  severally.     And  we  shall 


High  Priesthood  in  Christ  143 

be  better  able  now  to  interpret  the  acts  of  those  high 
priests  in  the  perfect  light  of  the  consummate  act  of 
the  true  High  Priest,  than  we  should  be  to  understand 
His  act  in  only  the  imperfect  light  of  theirs. 

The  7repi  d/iapTia?,  the  sacrifice  for  sin  of  the  Old 
Testament,  was  the  most  significant  and  expressive  act 
of  religion  or  of  worship  known  to  the  world  before 
Christ.  Justly  so,  for  the  one  question  about  human 
life  or  destiny  is,  What  about  Sin  ?  Sin  is  the  one 
thing  that  stands  in  our  way,  between  us  and  our- 
selves, between  us  and  everything  else,  between  us 
and  God.  The  act  which  names  itself  by  that  ques- 
tion, which  undertakes  or  claims  to  be,  in  any  sense, 
the  solution  of  it,  is,  or  professes  to  be,  the  essence  of 
religion,  the  expression  of  worship.  We  have  been 
now  through  the  whole  experiment  and  experience  of 
the  world  upon  that  point,  and  in  the  light  of  what 
we  believe,  what  we  know  to  be  the  truth  of  God  in 
the  matter,  we  may  undertake  to  interpret  so  much  of 
that  truth  as  was  anticipated  and  contained  in  the 
sin-offering  of  the  Jews. 

The  only  ultimate  and  complete  thing  to  be  done 
about  sin  is  to  abolish  it.  Nothing  will  make  us  at  one 
with  God,  with  all  things,  and  with  ourselves,  but  the 
extinction  of  that  which  alone  separates  us  from  them. 
Sin  can  be  abolished  only  by  conquest;  it  can  be  ex- 
tinguished in  one  only  by  one's  own  act.  No  one  may 
abide  sinless  through  mere  innocence;  sinlessness  prior 
to  or  without  the  possibility,  the  opportunity,  the  temp- 
tation to  sin,  sinlessness  save  through  the  encounter, 


144        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

the  warfare,  the  life  and  death  conflict  to  the  very  end, 
with  sin  is  an  impossiblity  for  us.  There  are  some 
things,  there  is  one  thing  at  least,  which  God  can  save 
us  in  and  by  and  through,  but  not  from;  and  that  is  the 
issue  and  the  decision  which  we  must  make  for  our- 
selves between  sin  and  holiness,  between  death  and 
life.  That  cup  may  not  pass  from  us  except  we  drink 
it;  that  baptism  we  must  be  baptized  withal.  God 
cannot  take  away  our  sin  except  we  put  it  away;  we 
cannot  put  away  our  sin  except  God  take  it  away. 
We  do  not  divide  the  work  of  our  salvation  between 
ourselves  and  God;  God  does  it  all  in  us,  and  we  do 
it  all  in  Him.  It  would  not  be  our  salvation  if  He  did 
it  without  us;  neither  would  it  be  our  salvation  if  we 
did  it  without  Him,  for  we  are  ourselves  only  in  our 
oneness  with  Him. 


VIII 
THE    OLD    AND    NEW    COVENANTS 

Hebrews  7-8 
The  Old  Testament  sacrifice  for  sin,  if  immediately 
it  meant  something  short  of  the  whole  truth,  yet  in 
reality  was  building  more  wisely  and  meant  better  than 
it  knew.     It  meant  really  all  of  both  the  putting  and 
the  taking  away  of  sin.     The  sinner  represented  or 
enacted  in  the  body  of  his  victim  his  own  death  to  sin, 
his  own  resistance  unto  blood  or  obedience  unto  death. 
That  means  his  own  repentance  unto  the  very  putting 
away  or  extinction  of  sin.     The  act  transcended  that, 
however,  inasmuch  as  such  a  sacrifice  of  love  and  obe- 
dience is,  because  or  by  reason  of  the  weakness  of  the 
flesh,   a   human   impossibility.     The   provision   of  the 
victim  introduces  an  evangelical  feature,  the  element  of 
grace.     The  offerer  might  see  in  it,  if  he  saw  all,  the 
lack  of  his  own  power  of  sacrifice,  not  replaced  or 
substituted,  but  supplied  by  God's  gift  and  grace  of 
sacrifice.     Just  as  now,  in  our  eucharist,  we  offer  up  to 
God  first  the  perfect  sacrifice  impossible  in  or  of  our- 
selves, then  receive  from  God  the  gift  and  grace  of 
that  sacrifice  in  ourselves,  and  finally,  offer  up  ourselves 
a  living  sacrifice  through  the  grace  of  the  perfect  sacri- 
fice received.     God  does  not  lower  His  commands,  nor 
11  l« 


146        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

accept  any  substitute  for  our  obedience.  We  have  got 
for  our  own  salvation  to  repent  unto  death  and  believe 
unto  life.  But  He  is  gracious  to  command  what  He 
will  when  He  gives  what  He  commands;  to  exact  of  us 
the  perfect  act  of  sacrifice,  when  He  imparts  to  us  the 
perfect  spirit  and  power  of  sacrifice. 

But  the  limitation  of  those  old  sacrifices  was  that 
they  were  always  merely  representative  and  never  real 
or  effectual.  How  could  the  blood  or  death  or  sacrifice 
of  bulls  and  of  goats  take  away  sin  ?  They  might  stand 
for  or  typify  something  which  could  take  away  sin,  and 
thus  be  a  pledge  and  promise  of  the  something  that 
should  do  so.  When  that  something  appeared,  it  would 
devolve  upon  it  to  demonstrate  its  power  to  be  by 
actually  being  itself  the  power  to  take  away  sin.  And 
that  we  shall  see  it  did. 

The  fact  was,  then,  that  the  old  priesthood  which 
could  never  and  did  never  offer  the  sacrifice  of  sinless- 
ness  or  holiness  or  eternal  life  in  and  for  itself,  could 
never  minister  or  impart  to  others  the  gift  or  grace  of 
sacrifice  which  alone  could  take  away  their  sins.  It 
went  on  repeating  and  representing  what,  because  it 
could  never  effect  in  itself,  therefore  it  could  never 
effect  in  others. 

Just  precisely,  then,  what  the  representative  high 
priests  could  not  do  was  this:  They  could  not,  for 
themselves  or  for  others,  perform  the  act,  offer  the 
sacrifice,  which  was  necessary  to  at-one  them  with  God, 
redeem  them  from  sin,  and  raise  them  from  death. 
They  could  not  effect  in  themselves  or  in  others  that 


Old  and  New  Covenants  147 

completion  or  perfection  of  repentance  and  faith  which 
is  the  death  to  sin  and  the  life  to  God.  They  went  on, 
therefore,  repeating  acts  which  were  always  performing 
because  never  performed;  which  could  only  mean  or 
represent,  which  at  best  could  only  express  their  need 
and  desire  for,  something  as  yet  unaccomplished  either 
by  them  or  for  them.  Their  sacrifices  meant  but  were 
not  either  the  putting  or  the  taking  away  of  their  sins. 
Now  on  the  contrary  the  accomplished  act  and  the 
effective  sacrifice  of  the  true  High  Priest  did  do  all 
that  the  representative  sacrificial  acts  before  could  not 
do.  They  did  abolish  sin,  first  in  the  High  Priest 
Himself  actually,  and  then  potentially  in  all  others 
who  should  enter  into  and  share  with  Him  the 
grace  and  fellowship  of  His  perfect  sacrifice.  The 
likeness  or  identity  of  the  sacrificial  acts  of  the  typical 
and  the  real  high  priests  lay  in  the  fact  that  they  both 
meant  the  same  thing,  the  taking  or  putting  away  of 
sin  both  in  them  and  in  the  people.  The  difference 
was  that  Jesus  by  the  single  consistent,  lifelong,  cross- 
completed,  act  of  His  own  perfect  holiness,  of  His  own 
death  in  the  flesh  to  sin  and  life  in  the  spirit  to  God, 
accomplished  and  was  all  that  they,  at  the  best,  only 
represented  and  were  not. 

For  the  law  appointeth  men  high  priests,  having 
infirmity;  but  the  word  of  the  oath,  which  was  after 
the  law,  appointeth  a  Son,  perfected  forevermore. 
Was  it  not  said  before  that  Jesus  was  qualified  to  be 
our  high  priest  just  by  the  fact  of  His  sharing  our 
infirmity;  that  He  knew  how  to  sympathize  because  He 


148        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

was  Himself  compassed  with  infirmity?  The  present 
passage  does  not  contradict  that;  it  does  not  mean  to 
say  that  our  nature  in  our  Lord  was  not  subject  to  all 
the  deficiencies  and  limitations  to  which  it  is  subject  in 
us;  neither  does  it  mean  that  He  Himself  in  the  nature 
was  not  subject  to  all  our  insufficiencies  and  inabilities 
in  it.  Human  nature  and  human  life  were  not  in  and 
of  themselves  sinless  or  holy  in  Jesus  Christ.  They 
were  sinless  or  holy  in  Him;  but  they  were  made  so  by 
His  act  in  them.  And  the  gist  and  essence  of  His  act 
which  made  them  so  consisted  in  the  fact  that  it  was 
an  act  performed  not  in  the  nature  or  in  Himself  but 
wholly  and  perfectly  in  God.  He  was  Himself  the 
supreme  demonstration  and  manifestation  of  the  fact 
that  man  attains  or  becomes  himself  not  by  nature 
nor  by  self  but  by  God.  And  yet,  in  fulfilling  God  he 
fulfils  himself,  and  in  fulfilling  himself  he  fulfils  his 
nature.  Our  Lord's  own  act  in  our  nature  was  God's 
act  in  Him,  and  all  the  sinlessness  of  our  nature  in 
Him  was  His  own  divine-human  act  in  the  nature. 

From  this  it  follows  that  the  act  of  Jesus  Christ 
which  in  His  person  made  humanity  at  one  with  God, 
redeemed  it  from  sin,  and  raised  it  from  death,  was 
an  act  of  perfect  and  perfecting  faith,  hope,  and  love; 
because  these  are  the  faculties  and  functions  in  and 
through  which  God  unites  Himself  with  man  and  man 
with  God.  Our  Lord's  perfect  holiness  and  perfect 
life  were  alike  acts  of  perfect  grace  and  faith;  and, 
as  we  shall  more  and  more  see,  those  acts,  or  that 
act,  could  have  assumed  no  other  form  than  the  one 


Old  and  New  Covenants  149 

full,  perfect,  and  sufficient  sacrifice,  oblation,  and  satis- 
faction for  the  sins  of  the  world,  which  is  still  the 
substance  of  our  religion  and  the  supreme  act  of  our 
worship. 

The  high  priests,  then,  having  infirmity  are  men  not 
only  subject  to  the  deficiencies  of  nature  and  the  in- 
sufficiencies inseparable  from  ourselves,  but  who  have 
succumbed  to  that  infirmity  and  become  subject  in 
themselves  to  sin,  or  subject  to  sins  of  their  own. 
Jesus,  on  the  contrary,  subject  like  them  to  all  the 
infirmity  of  nature  or  of  natural  condition,  and  to  all 
the  insufficiency  and  weakness  of  any  and  every  man 
in  himself,  did  not  succumb  to  that  natural  or  human 
inability,  did  not  become  subject  in  Himself  to  sin  or 
contract  sin  of  His  own;  but,  by  a  perfect  faith,  by  a 
perfect  abandonment  of  nature  and  Himself,  by  a 
perfect  laying  hold  upon  the  Power  not  and  greater 
than  Himself,  He  transcended  all  limitations  of  nature 
and  Himself,  and  achieved,  attained  divine  holiness 
and  eternal  life.  If  He  is  not  a  man  having  infirmity, 
it  is  because  He  is  one  who,  knowing  all  of  man's 
infirmity,  has  used  it  as  an  argument  and  a  means  for 
the  replacing  it  with  all  God's  power  and  sufficiency. 
It  is  because  He  had  all  the  true  human  consciousness 
that  in  nature  alone,  or  of  Himself  alone,  He  were  a 
sinner;  because  He  had  all  a  true  human  consciousness 
of  what  sin  were,  what  in  all  others  than  Himself  it 
was;  it  was  because  He  realized  in  Himself,  as  never 
man  did,  the  meaning  of  what  He  was  confronted  with 
in  the  possibility  and  daily  danger  of  sin,  in  the  mighty 


150        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

temptation  to  sin,  in  the  seeming  human  impossibility 
of  not  sinning. 

It  is  not  necessary  that  He  should  have  Himself 
succumbed  to  death  in  the  flesh  in  order  that  He 
should  know  the  meaning  of  the  death  of  the  flesh. 
One  knows  the  sin  and  the  death  which  one  has 
perfectly  met  and  has  perfectly  overcome,  better  than 
if  one  had  in  the  least  been  overcome  by  them. 
In  fact,  it  is  only  in  a  perfect  spiritual  and  moral 
attitude  against  sin,  such  an  attitude  as  perfectly 
excludes  it,  that  one  knows  all  the  meaning  of  sin  as 
sin  or  of  death  as  death.  Such  an  attitude  was  that 
of  Jesus  Christ  towards  sin  as  was  in  itself  a  death  to 
sin,  and  a  death  to  that  entire  nature  and  condition  of 
life  in  oneself,  or  life  apart  from  God,  which  we  call 
the  flesh,  and  which  is  inseparable  from  sin. 

The  condition  and  constituent  of  this  true  high 
priesthood,  a  humanity  raised  above  all  natural  or 
human  or  sinful  infirmity,  and  raised  by  act  of  itself 
in  God  as  well  as  by  act  of  God  in  it,  is  to  be  found 
only  in  the  Son  perfected  for  ever.  Not  in  the  Son 
perfect  always,  but  in  the  Son  perfected,  made  or 
become  perfect,  for  ever.  The  act  or  process  of  the 
perfecting  or  being  perfected  is  just  the  point  of  the 
whole  epistle:  Having  been  perfected  by  so  and  so  He 
becomes,  etc.  —  is  our  theme.  We  can  see  clearly 
enough  that  if  our  true  High  Priest  is  he  who  realizes 
and  expresses  and  mediates  our  perfect  relationship  to 
God,  then  he  can  be  manifested  only  as  a  perfected 
Son.     The  nature  of  God  and  the  nature  of  man  alike 


Old  and  New  Covenants  151 

require  that,  on  the  one  hand,  the  end  of  God  should 
be  not  to  be  perfect  Creator,  or  perfect  Lord  or  Master, 
but  perfect  Father;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  the  end  or 
destiny  of  man  should  be  to  become,  not  perfect  crea- 
ture, or  perfect  servant,  but  perfect  son.  To  inherit 
the  divine  nature  as  our  own  natural  destination,  to 
become  like  God  by  becoming  in  union  with  Him  what 
God  is,  that  is  the  only  possible  meaning  and  reason 
and  purpose  of  religion. 

We  speak  sometimes  of  the  poet,  say  Shakespeare, 
as  being  the  high  priest  of  nature  or  of  human 
nature.  The  perfect  poet  would  be  he  who  in  himself 
first,  and  then  to  and  in  us,  perfectly  interprets  and 
expresses  the  truth  and  meaning  of  nature  and  of 
our  own  nature.  The  perfected  Son  of  God  is  High 
Priest  of  the  spiritual  and  divine  nature  of  all  things 
and  especially  of  ourselves.  He  reveals  us  all  to  our- 
selves, because  He  has  first  realized  us  all  in  Himself. 
He  is  we  in  all  the  perfection  of  our  Godward  nature 
and  relation.  We  are  He  in  the  fulness  of  the  truth 
of  our  inner,  diviner,  immortal  selves.  In  Him  God 
hath  reconciled  all  things  to  Himself;  all  things  have 
become  one  in  God. 

In  the  eighth  chapter  our  Author  enters  upon  what 
we  might  call  the  ritual  or  liturgical  expression  and 
exposition  of  our  Lord's  proper  high-priestly  function. 
As  compared  with  the  Levitical  priesthood,  He  is  the 
minister  of  a  truer  sanctuary,  as  also  His  sanctuary 
is  that  of  a  truer  ministry.  His  ministry  is  the  more 
excellent,  by  how  much  also  He  is  the  mediator  of  a 


152        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

better  covenant.  And  the  covenant  is  better,  because 
it  is  enacted  upon  better  promises  and  therefore  upon 
a  better  hope.  These  successive  points  we  are  to  dis- 
cuss, and  if  the  discussion  is  conducted  in  figures  or  in 
symbols  rather  than  in  words,  or  in  the  forms  of  mere 
mental  expression,  it  need  not  be  the  less  true  or  the 
less  plain  on  that  account.  What  we  want  is  to  get 
God's  truth  to  our  minds,  our  hearts,  and  our  lives, 
and  this  we  can  do  only  under  the  forms  that  best 
express  and  impress  it.  Visual  forms  may  convey  the 
truth  as  truly  as  any  others,  oftentimes  even  more 
really  because  more  realistically,  and  not  necessarily 
with  more  danger  of  the  formality  to  which  all  forms, 
even  the  most  mental,  are  equally  liable. 

I  propose  to  follow  the  Apostle,  and  sometimes  the 
example  of  the  Apostle,  in  his  own,  and  perhaps  some- 
what beyond  his  own,  interpretations  of  the  liturgical 
acts  in  which  our  Lord's  high-priestly  acts,  and  espe- 
cially His  perfect  sacrifice,  first  found  imperfect  expres- 
sion. I  am  not  concerned  very  vitally  with  the  actual 
exact  interpretation  of  the  ritual  acts,  though  I  should 
like  to  be  able  to  give  that  too;  but  I  am  concerned 
about  the  accuracy  of  the  spiritual  truth  which  we 
endeavour  to  convey  by  their  means.  We  have  only 
to  remember  that  we  have  the  right  to  apply  to  the 
expression  or  the  illustration  of  the  truth  acts  or 
objects  or  events  which  need  not  have  meant  in  them- 
selves all  the  truth  which  we  express  in  terms  of  them. 

Our  Author  distinguishes  very  carefully  between 
the  actual,  earthly  sanctuary  or  tabernacle  which  was 


Old  and  New  Covenants  153 

the  setting  of  the  priestly  functions  of  the  sons  of  Levi 
or  of  Aaron,  and  the  ideal,  heavenly  sanctuary  of  the 
true  or  real  high  priesthood  and  priestly  acts.  He 
reminds  us,  however,  that  the  one  was  an  exact,  though 
an  infinitely  inadequate,  copy  and  shadow  of  the 
other:  Even  as  Moses  was  warned  of  God  when  he  was 
about  to  make  the  tabernacle:  for,  See,  saith  He,  that 
thou  make  all  according  to  the  pattern  that  was  shewed 
thee  in  the  mount.  What  was  the  heavenly  pattern  ? 
It  was  assuredly  not  a  mechanical  architectural  plan, 
a  builder's  or  contractor's  specifications.  The  earthly 
sanctuary  differed  more  widely  than  that  from  the 
heavenly.  The  latter,  as  we  shall  see,  was  no  scheme 
or  arrangement  of  material  chambers  and  veils,  altars 
and  arks;  it  was  an  order  or  ordering  of  spiritual  rela- 
tions, acts,  and  transactions,  a  divine  disposition  of 
the  soul  in  its  access  to  God,  and  of  God  in  His  meeting 
with  the  soul. 

The  two  tabernacles  or  sanctuaries  agreed  in  this, 
that  in  infinitely  different  degrees,  with  all  the  differ- 
ence between  mere  meaning  and  being,  between  shadow 
and  substance,  they  were  both  dwelling-places  of  the 
divine  presence,  meeting-places  of  God  and  man.  It 
is  the  end  alone,  what  the  thing  is  when  all  its  becom- 
ing has  been  completed,  when  it  stands  revealed  in  the 
perfection  of  all  its  meaning  from  the  beginning  —  it  is 
the  end  only  that  interprets  things.  The  little  taber- 
nacle in  the  wilderness,  whether  it  be  read  forward 
through  all  its  subsequent  changes,  or  itself  was  read 
backward  from  later  and  more   developed  forms,  in 


154        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

any  case  stands  for  that  in  the  beginning  all  the  truth 
of  which  finds  its  fulfilment  and  expression  only  in 
Christ  in  the  end. 

The  dwelling-place  of  the  divine  presence  in  the 
midst  of  the  sinful  people;  the  meeting-place  of  God 
and  man  for  the  taking  away  of  sin, — what  does  that 
mean,  but  the  Incarnation,  the  At-one-ment,  the  Re- 
demption, the  Resurrection,  Eternal  Life,  all  that  Jesus 
Christ  stands  for  as  the  end  of  creation  and  of  hu- 
manity? He  is  the  heavenly  sanctuary,  the  dwelling- 
place  of  the  divine  presence  in  the  midst  of  the  sinful 
people,  in  or  within  His  sanctified  people,  His  saints; 
He  is  the  meeting-place,  where  God  takes  the  sinner 
into  Himself  in  His  grace,  and  the  sinner  takes  God 
into  himself  through  his  faith.  All  this  is  anticipating, 
but  it  is  well  to  know  at  once  that  the  true  anti-type 
or  archetype  of  the  tabernacle  about  which  we  are 
going  to  speak  is  Jesus  Christ;  and  that  the  truth  of 
Christ  is  the  true  ordering  and  effecting  of  all  eternal 
divine-human  acts,  activities,  and  relations.  The  soul 
and  centre  of  this  is  the  great  high-priestly  act  or 
sacrifice,  the  taking  away  of  sin  on  the  part  of  God, 
the  putting  off  of  sin  on  the  part  of  man. 

We  might  go  on  in  this  preliminary  way  to  say  a  little 
of  the  more  excellent  ministry,  or  public  service,  or 
liturgical  function,  to  be  accomplished  in  the  truer 
sanctuary  by  the  real  high  priest.  But  that  is  just  the 
full  matter  of  the  chapters  to  come,  and  we  had  better 
reserve  it  for  them.  The  better  covenant,  however, 
based  upon   the  great  sacrifice,  and  mediated  by  the 


Old  and  New  Covenants  155 

great  High  Priest,  which  the  Apostle  describes  as 
enacted  upon  better  promises  and  a  surer  hope,  he  does 
himself  here  prepare  our  minds  for  by  an  extended 
consideration,  and  to  this  we  may  devote  the  rest  of 
this  chapter. 

"If  that  first  covenant  had  been  faultless,  then  would 
no  place  have  been  sought  for  a  second.  For  finding 
fault  with  them,  He  saith,  Behold  the  days  come,  saitli 
the  Lord,  that  I  will  make  a  new  covenant  with  the 
house  of  Israel  and  the  house  of  Judah;  not  according 
to  the  covenant  that  I  made  with  their  fathers  in  the 
day  that  I  took  them  by  the  hand  to  lead  them  forth 
out  of  the  land  of  Egypt;  for  they  continued  not  in  my 
covenant,  and  I  regarded  them  not,  saith  the  Lord. 
For  this  is  the  covenant  that  I  will  make  with  the 
house  of  Israel  after  those  days,  saith  the  Lord ;  I  will 
put  my  laws  into  their  mind,  and  on  their  heart  also 
will  I  write  them;  and  I  will  be  to  them  a  God,  and 
they  shall  be  to  me  a  people:  and  they  shall  not  teach 
every  man  his  fellow-citizen  and  every  man  his  brother, 
saying,  Know  the  Lord:  for  all  shall  know  me,  from 
the  least  to  the  greatest  of  them.  For  I  will  be  merci- 
ful to  their  iniquities,  and  their  sins  will  I  remember 
no  more.  In  that  He  saith,  A  new  covenant,  He  hath 
made  the  first  old.  But  that  which  is  becoming  old 
and  waxed  aged  is  nigh  unto  vanishing  away." 

There  is  first  the  fact  and  meaning  of  a  covenant, 
and  then  an  alternation  of,  a  comparison  and  choice 
between,  covenants.  The  commentaries  will  give  at 
length  the  history  and  meaning  of  the  word  and  the 


156        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

thing,  covenant.  Let  us  look  to  the  end  and  anticipate, 
if  necessary,  what  must  be  the  fulness  of  its  meaning. 
The  thing  sought  is  the  right  footing  or  basis  of  a  per- 
fect personal  human  relationship  with  God,  the  true 
ground  of  man's  status  or  standing  with  God.  The  ulti- 
mate perfect  ground  will  be  the  answer  of  the  realized 
sonship  of  man  to  the  perfect  fatherhood  of  God.  But 
man's  relation  to  God  is  necessarily  a  progressive,  a  pro- 
gressively realized,  one.  However  it  may  be  a  poten- 
tially born,  it  has  to  be  an  actually  made  relationship 
by  mutual  action  between  God  and  man.  It  under- 
goes evolution  and  growth  through  what  in  the  experi- 
ence of  life  God  and  man  become  to  each  other.  The 
status  between,  or  basis  of  relation,  may  be  viewed  as 
the  result  of  compact  or  agreement  between  the  two 
parties,  each  contributing  to  the  common  arrangement. 
This  would  be  better  expressed  by  the  word  <rvvdrjK-q. 
But  in  fact  there  is  a  growing  scriptural  recognition 
of  the  truth  that  in  all  human  relationship  with  God, 
while  there  are  necessarily  two  parties  to  the  disposi- 
tion, there  is  in  reality  only  one  disposer.  The  status 
between  us  is  determined  not  by  God  and  us  but  by 
God.  We  have  necessarily  a  part  in  it,  without  which 
the  status  would  be  non -operative  if  not  non-existent; 
but  our  part  is  simply  and  absolutely  to  accept  God's 
part  as  our  own  also. 

We  may  illustrate  this  by  the  present  working  of 
our  Christian  status  with  God.  It  is,  let  us  say,  a 
covenant  of  grace  and  faith,  grace  being  God's  part 
and  faith  our  part.     Now  press  to  the  Very  farthest 


Old  and  New  Covenants  157 

the  truth  that  faith,  so  far  from  being  a  mere  passivity, 
is  the  very  highest  and  most  strenuous  activity  of  which 
the  soul  of  man  is  capable,  and  the  fact  still  remains 
that  all  that  activity,  in  other  words,  that  our  faith 
itself,  is  but  the  work  of  the  grace  which  is  God's  part, 
and  that  we  only  call  it  our  own  because  we  accept 
His  work  in  us  as  our  own  work  in  Him.  The  recog- 
nition of  this  fact  converts  the  o-vvdyKr),  what  would  be 
a  compact  or  co-operation  between  us  and  God,  into 
the  SuidrJKr],  wherein  God  is  all  in  all,  disposing  our 
part  as  well  as  His  own,  and  yet  our  part  not  without 
us,  since  we  through  the  faith  which  He  gives  us  make 
freely  our  own  and  freely  work  all  that  He  works  in 
us. 

There  may  be  more  than  two,  but  let  us  limit  our 
attention  to  the  two  steps  or  stages  of  covenant  relation 
with  God  which  in  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  have 
marked  human  progress  toward  the  final  and  complete 
at-one-ment.  The  covenant  of  law  is  so  called  because 
it  stressed  man's  part  in  the  divine-human  compact. 
Its  meaning  was  the  necessity  and  the  uncompro- 
mising demand  for  obedience  or  righteousness  on 
man's  part.  The  requirement  of  righteousness  is 
simply  the  statement  of  the  fact  that  without  our  own 
redemption,  completion,  and  perfection  we  can  neither 
be  nor  possses  what  constitutes  ourselves  or  our  blessed- 
ness. Penalty  for  unrighteousness  is  simply  the  neces- 
sary natural  consequence  of  the  loss  or  destruction  of 
ourselves  and  our  blessedness.  If  holiness  and  right- 
eousness, having  the  spirit  and  working  the  works  of 


158        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

God,  are  life,  then  sin  and  disobedience  are  —  they  are 
not  arbitrarily  made,  they  simply  in  themselves  are  — 
death.  And  spiritual  life  and  death  are  not  only, 
they  are  very  much  more  for  good  or  ill  than  only, 
physical  living  and  dying. 

The  covenant  or  stage  of  law,  then,  had  for  its 
positive  function  and  aim  the  development  of  the 
spiritual  and  moral  experience  and  conception  of 
human  freedom,  accountability,  responsibility.  Its 
demand  was  for  right  thinking,  right  feeling,  right 
willing,  right  acting,  right  being  and  living,  right- 
eousness. The  fact  that  man  was  incapable  in  himself 
of  all  these,  or  all  this,  did  not  obviate  the  necessity 
of  his  having  to  find  out  that  too  for  himself.  We 
only  know  that  which  is  the  result  and  discovery  of 
our  own  experience.  The  end  of  the  law  is  not  only  to 
express  and  to  demand  perfection,  but  to  produce  per- 
fection, to  make  perfect.  Its  inability  to  do  so  is  not 
in  itself  but  in  its  subjects;  what  it  could  not  do  was 
because  of  the  weakness  of  our  flesh,  that  is,  because 
of  our  inability  of  ourselves  to  render  it  obedience. 

The  secondary  and  actual  end  of  the  law,  then,  was 
not  to  produce  righteousness,  since  it  could  not  do  so; 
the  law  made  nothing  perfect ;  if  there  had  been  a  law 
given  which  could  have  given  life,  verily  righteousness 
would  have  been  by  the  law.  Its  immediate  function 
was  by  its  own  weakness  to  prepare  the  way  for  that 
which  could  give  righteousness  and  life.  It  did  all  it 
could  do  when  it  convinced  and  convicted  the  world 
first  of  sin  and  then  of  the  impossibility  of  sinlessness 


Old  and  New  Covenants  159 

in  or  of  itself,  and  so  prepared  it  for  the  receptivity  and 
the  divinely  received  efficacy  of  faith  and  grace.  So 
the  law  was  a  schoolmaster  to  bring  the  world  to  Christ, 
as  Christ  was  the  end  of  the  law  for  righteousness  and 
life.  The  successive  covenants  or  covenant  stages 
were  not  contradictory  of  one  another,  but  on  the  con- 
trary were  leading  always  to  the  same  end,  and  the 
better  because  in  each  age  or  stage  the  one  process 
stressed  and  expressed  itself  under  the  form  of  the  one 
need  of  that  stage. 

The  principle  of  conservatism  seems  to  be  almost 
the  strongest  of  all  the  elements  of  our  nature.  That 
which  has  been  good  we  do  not  know  how  to  give  up 
when  its  good  has  been  accomplished  and  the  better 
has  come  to  take  its  place.  Christ  Himself  came  only 
through  blood,  and  we  have  not  finished  learning  anew 
what  St.  Paul  suffered  in  mediating  the  transition  from 
the  covenant  of  law  and  failure  to  that  of  grace  and 
realization.  This  is  the  new  covenant  that  was  to  be 
made  when  the  old  should  have  accomplished  its  end 
by  its  failure;  when  in  the  fulness  of  the  time  the  com- 
ing of  the  new  should  have  been  rendered  possible  by 
the  finished  experience  of  the  weakness  and  unprofit- 
ableness of  the  old :  "  I  will  put  my  laws  into  their 
mind,  and  on  their  heart  also  will  I  write  them;  and  I 
will  be  to  them  a  God,  and  they  shall  be  to  me  a  people." 
Here  is  a  very  general,  and  for  that  reason  not  a  very 
definite,  statement  which  nevertheless  expresses  the 
whole  thing  accomplished  by  Jesus  Christ.  Let  us 
again  go  to  the  end  of  it,  and  having  done  so  we  shall 


160        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

see  that  there  is  no  meaning  for  the  words  short  of  the 
very  utmost  possible  limit.  The  putting  the  laws  into 
the  mind  and  writing  them  on  the  heart  has  its  full 
truth  only  in  the  incarnation  of  holiness,  righteousness, 
and  life  in  the  human  person  of  Jesus  Christ.  The 
difference  between  the  two  dispositions  or  dispensa- 
tions is  the  very  vital  one  between  a  law,  obedience,  or 
righteousness  exacted  and  the  same  conferred  or  im- 
parted, between  a  righteousness  in  us,  or  rather  impos- 
sible in  us,  of  ourselves  or  our  own,  and  a  righteousness 
in  us,  possible  and  actual,  which  is  of  ourselves  in  us 
because  it  is  of  God  in  us. 

The  full  meaning  of  words  is  never  to  be  found 
in  the  mere  words,  but  only  in  the  thing  which  the 
words  only  indicate  and  never  express.  There  is  only 
one  word  which  perfectly  expresses  the  thing,  and  that 
is  the  Word  of  God  which  perfectly  expresses  because 
it  is  identical  with  the  Thing.  Jesus  Christ  is  the  law, 
the  obedience,  the  righteousness,  the  life  which  is  the 
end  of  all  relation  with  God;  and  He  is  this,  not  in 
abstract  conception  or  statement,  not  in  transcendental 
thought  or  idea,  not  in  ethical  legislation  or  legal 
requisition,  not  even  as  divine  command  or  moral 
obligation ;  but  —  how  ?  Why,  as  all  the  thing  it- 
self; the  law,  the  obedience,  the  righteousness  all  real- 
ized and  actual  in  a  concrete  perfect  human  life,  in  the 
accomplished  fact  of  humanity  in  His  person  per- 
fected in  its  personal  relationship  with  God.  There  is 
the  thing  in  the  flesh;  the  law  in  its  real  place  in  the 
human  mind  or  reason;  its  matter  or  content,  love,  in 


Old  and  New  Covenants  161 

its  proper  home  and  seat,  the  human  heart;  its  kingdom 
or  dominion  where  alone  it  can  really  be,  in  the  human 
will;  its  whole  self  manifested  in  the  spiritually  visible 
fact  of  a  completed  and  perfected  human  holiness, 
righteousness,  and  divine  as  well  as  human  life. 

The  promise  is  not  only,  however,  of  a  law,  an  obedi- 
ence, a  righteousness  objectively  revealed  in  our  flesh 
in  the  actual  human  mind  and  heart  and  life  of  Jesus. 
The  promise  is  to  us;  the  mind  and  heart  and  life  which 
are  to  receive  and  manifest  it  are  our  own.  And  this 
brings  in  the  great  truth  that  the  Gospel  of  God  in  its 
entirety  is  not  a  single  but  a  double  incarnation:  it  is 
not  only  God's  Word  of  Truth  manifested  to  us  ob- 
jectively in  the  flesh  of  Jesus  Christ;  it  is  also  God's 
Spirit  of  Life  manifested  in  us  subjectively  in  our  own 
flesh,  which  means  our  own  minds  and  hearts  and  lives. 
God  in  Christ  is  only  half  the  truth  and  the  mystery 
of  the  Incarnation;  Christ  in  us  is  the  full  other  half. 
And  it  means  all  the  mind  and  heart  and  will  and  life, 
all  the  holiness  and  righteousness  and  divine  perfec- 
tion of  Jesus  Christ  ours  as  well  as  His. 

The  mystery  of  this  inclusion  of  ourselves  in  Christ 
and  of  this  real  incarnation  of  Christ  in  us  is  not 
denied  or  diminished  by  the  claim  that  this  most  mys- 
terious is  also  the  most  natural  and  the  most  rational 
of  facts.  That  which  we  most  know,  most  recognize, 
approve,  and  acknowledge,  which  we  most  desire  and 
will  and  purpose,  —  that  also  will  we  most  do  and 
become  and  be.  The  process  is  absolutely  the  most 
human,  real,  and  actual  one  possible.  If  God  truly 
12 


162        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

predestinated  us  to  be  conformed  to  the  divinely 
human  image  of  His  Son,  that  is  to  say,  to  the  type 
of  the  perfect  character  and  life  revealed  to  us  in 
Jesus  Christ,  so  that  He  should  be  a  new  birth,  a  new 
spiritual  principle,  a  new  creative  and  assimilating 
norm  in  our  humanity,  and  through  us  in  the  world, 
we  can  but  feel  and  know,  the  more  we  have  experi- 
ence of  the  truth,  that  the  method  pursued  is  the 
absolutely  natural  and  rational  one.  Let  one  truly 
know  Christ  and  truly  love  Christ  and  all  the  rest 
will  follow;  he  will  as  truly  come  to  God  and  come 
to  himself  as  any  other  effect  follows  any  other  cause. 
"And  I  will  be  to  them  a  God,  and  they  shall  be  to 
me  a  people."  In  the  first  chapter  of  our  Epistle  the 
divine  words  are  applied  to  our  Lord,  I  will  be  to  him 
a  Father,  and  He  shall  be  to  me  a  Son.  The  truth  to 
which  that  was  seen  to  look  forward  was  this :  In  Jesus 
Christ  has  been  accomplished  the  divine  predestina- 
tion which  is  human  destination,  what  our  Scriptures 
inadequately  call  the  adoption  of  sons,  the  supernatu- 
ral natural  becoming-son  of  humanity.  So  to  speak, 
relatively  to  the  world  and  ourselves,  humanity  became 
Son  and  God  became  Father  in  the  person  and  by  the 
act  of  Jesus  Christ.  The  true  nature  and  relation  of 
each  and  both  came  to  realization  and  fulfilment  in 
Him.  Now  we  have  here,  in  this  later  passage,  a 
precisely  parallel  expression,  the  self-same  truth  in 
fact,  extended  in  its  application  from  our  Lord  Himself 
to  the  larger  humanity  which  He  has  also  identified 
with  Himself  and  made  the  true  body  of  His  incarna- 


Old  and  New  Covenants  163 

tion.  Let  us  by  way  of  illustration  push  the  exact 
form  of  expression  to  the  limit  of  its  literal  meaning. 
It  is  one  of  those  forms  which  have  been  accepted  as 
Hebraisms  in  our  Greek  text,  and  literally  translated 
would  read,  I  will  be  to  Him  unto  or  into  a  Father, 
and  He  shall  be  to  Me  into  a  Son;  I  will  be  to  them 
into  God,  and  they  shall  be  to  Me  into  a  people:  that 
is,  I  will  become  Father  to  Him,  and  He  Son  to  Me;  I 
will  become  God  to  them,  and  they  a  people  to  Me. 
There  is,  of  course,  no  actual  changing  into,  or  real 
becoming,  on  the  part  of  all  the  parties  involved. 
There  is  no  real  change  in  God  into  what  He  was  not 
before  in  Himself,  but  there  was  a  relative  change  in 
what  He  was  to  the  other  parties  through  change  in 
them  in  their  relation  to  Him;  the  other  parties  being, 
first,  humanity  in  Christ,  and  then  humanity  in  itself 
in  Christ.  Father  and  son,  God  and  people,  are  cor- 
relative terms  and  things,  and  the  correlation  depends 
upon  the  actual  relation  of  each  and  both.  Fatherhood 
to  the  son  is  realized  for  the  son  only  in  his  sonship  to 
the  Father;  God  to  or  for  the  people  can  be  or  become 
only  through  the  becoming  a  people  of  the  people. 
This  is  what  has  led  me  in  more  than  one  place  to 
say  that  there  is  a  true  sense  in  which,  not  only  crea- 
tion and  man,  but  God  himself,  is  fulfilled,  comes  to  the 
fulness  of  the  meaning  of  that  which  most  truly  expresses 
Him,  which  alone  truly  expresses  Him,  only  in  Jesus 
Christ.  God  in  Himself  is  complete  without  process, 
but  God  in  the  world  is  completed  only  in  process, 
by  evolution,  and  the  end  of  that  process  or  evolution 


164        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

is  Jesus  Christ,  in  Whom  God  and  the  world  and  man 
are  One.  In  the  primary  act  by  which  humanity  in 
Christ  became  son  to  God,  and  so  God  became  Father, 
entered  into  and  realized  His  fatherhood,  in  it;  in  the 
secondary  act  by  which  the  people  in  Christ,  through 
regeneration,  sanctification,  and  glorification  by  His 
Spirit,  become  a  people  to  God,  and  so  God  becomes 
God  to  His  people,  —  in  these  two  acts,  or  in  this 
double  act,  was  accomplished  the  predestination  and 
destination  of  all  things;  God,  the  world,  and  man 
fulfil  themselves  in  the  completion  and  perfection  of 
their  mutual  unity  and  relation.  Where  else  is  love 
so  perfect  and  God  so  human  as  in  the  manger  and  upon 
the  cross  ?  Where  else  is  man  so  divine,  the  creature 
so  exalted,  love  so  triumphant,  as  at  the  right  hand 
of  God? 

"And  they  shall  not  teach  every  man  his  fellow,  and 
every  man  his  brother,  saying,  Know  the  Lord:  for  all 
shall  know  me,  from  the  least  to  the  greatest  of  them." 
The  effect  of  law,  as  law,  was  to  separate  infinitely 
between  man  and  God,  as  far  as  finitude  from  infinity, 
as  impotence  from  omnipotence,  as  sin  from  holiness, 
as  hell  from  heaven.  The  effect  of  the  Gospel  of 
Christ,  rightly  understood,  is  equally,  not  only  to 
emphasize  in  conception,  but  to  verify  to  experience, 
the  infinite  nearness  and  oneness  of  God  and  man. 
The  distance  between  law  and  grace,  servants  and 
sons,  deism  and  Christian  theism,  the  untruth  and  the 
whole  truth  of  the  Incarnation  of  Jesus  Christ,  is  an 
immeasurable  one.     Truly  it  hath  not  entered  into  the 


Old  and  New  Covenants  165 

heart  of  man  to  conceive  the  things  that  God  hath 
prepared  for  us  in  Christ;  but  which  who  of  us  is 
prepared  to  receive!  Who  can  enter  into  the  nearness 
with  which  God  is  near  to  every  one  of  us  in  Christ? 
What  is  any  local  or  material  nearness  to  that  of  the 
love  of  God  in  Christ,  or  that  of  the  oneness  of  Christ 
with  us  in  that  closest  of  intimacies,  the  intimacy  of 
spirit,  the  fellowship  of  the  Holy  Ghost? 

The  nearness  of  God  to  us  inconceivably  exceeds, 
indeed,  that  of  us  to  Him,  and  yet,  with  all  our  dul- 
ness  and  deadness  to  what  is  ours  in  Him,  we  do  not 
at  all  realize  how  much  nearer  we  all  are  to  God,  how 
much  more  we  know  of  Him  through  the  Incarnation 
of  His  Son.  An  ancient  commentator  in  Greek  says 
in  substance,  that  after  God  dwelt  in  the  flesh  on  earth, 
and  deified  our  nature  by  His  assumption  of  it,  there 
shone  in  the  souls  of  all  the  light  of  the  true  God- 
knowledge,  and,  as  it  were,  a  sort  of  fitness  was  im- 
parted to  human  nature  by  grace  for  the  true  or  real 
knowing  of  God.  A  Jewish  Rabbi,  to  whom  the  vision 
of  Christ  came,  as  to  St.  Paul,  in  a  bright  light  from 
heaven,  often  said  in  his  after  experience  of  Chris- 
tianity that  habitual  Christians  did  not  know  how 
much  of  spiritual  knowledge  there  was  even  in  little 
children  by  virtue  of  their  having  been  born  in  Christ. 
And  St.  John  writes,  I  write  unto  you,  little  children, 
not  because  ye  know  not  the  truth  but  because  ye 
know  it. 

Finally  the  Apostle  places  the  foundation  beneath  all 
this  new  covenant  of  grace  in  the  words,  "  For  J  will 


166        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

be  merciful  to  their  iniquities,  and  their  sins  will  I 
remember  no  more."  The  possibility  of  that  initial 
nearness  to  God  which  is  the  condition  of  our  knowing 
Him  and  receiving  His  laws  into  our  minds  and  hearts, 
and  so  of  our  ultimate  actual  oneness  with  Him,  depends 
upon  the  divine  provision  by  which  our  sins,  so  far 
from  acting  as  a  ground  or  reason  for  our  infinite 
separation  from  God,  are  converted  into  reasons  and 
means  of  our  most  intimate  union  and  identification 
with  Him.  It  is  not  the  righteous  in  themselves  who 
are  the  nearest  to  the  infinitely  Righteous  in  Himself. 
That  would  be  only  the  external  likeness  and  relation 
of  two  distinct  righteousnesses.  It  is  the  unrighteous 
in  themselves  who  can  find  for  themselves  no  right- 
eousness but  in  Him,  and  can  know  in  themselves  no 
righteousness  but  His,  who  can  come  the  nearest  to 
Him,  nearer  to  Him  than  to  themselves,  the  nearness 
in  which  themselves  are  lost,  and  yet  found,  in  Him. 
The  relation  in  Christ  of  God  to  us  and  of  us  to  God 
enables  both  God  and  us,  without  sacrifice  or  compro- 
mise of  the  necessity  and  the  ultimate  actuality  of  our 
own  completed  and  perfect  righteousness,  rather  on 
the  ground  of  the  assured  certainty  of  that,  to  treat 
our  present  unrighteousness,  all  the  deep  and  dark 
fact  of  our  present  sins  and  sinfulness,  as  so  far  from 
a  ground  of  exclusion  as  to  be  the  very  reason  and 
necessitv  of  inclusion  in  Him. 


IX 

THE    SACRIFICE    THAT    TAKES    AWAY    SIN 

Hebrews  9-10 
Now  the  first  covenant  had  ordinances  of  divine 
service  and  its  sanctuary;  and  the  Apostle  proceeds  to 
describe  briefly  the  arrangement  and  the  services  of 
this  worldly  sanctuary  as  compared  and  contrasted 
with  those  of  the  heavenly.  The  description  of  the 
earthly  tabernacle  need  go  no  farther  than  its  use  in 
the  Epistle  to  illustrate  the  higher  functions  typified  by 
it.  We  may  recall  these  most  prominent  features: 
First  the  outer  Court  surrounding  the  Tabernacle,  with 
its  Brazen  Laver,  and  great  Altar  of  burnt  offering; 
then  the  entrance  through  the  outer  Veil  into  the  Front 
Tabernacle  or  Holy  Place;  in  which  were  the  Golden 
Candlestick  with  its  Seven-branched  Lights,  the  Table 
of  Shew-bread  with  the  Twelve  Loaves,  and  the  small 
Altar  of  Incense  before  the  Inner  Veil;  then  the 
most  significant  Inner  Veil  separating  the  outer  from 
the  inner  sanctuary  or  Holy  of  Holies  in  which  was 
the  Ark  of  the  Covenant,  containing  the  Two  Tables 
of  Stone,  Aaron's  Rod  that  budded,  and  the  Pot  of 
Manna ;  and  over  the  Ark  the  Mercy  Seat  where  rested 
the  Shekinah,  overshadowed  by  the  Cherubim.  Now 
these  things  having  been  thus  prepared,  the  priests  go 

167 


168        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

in  continually  into  the  first  tabernacle,  accomplishing 
the  services;  but  not  so  into  the  second  tabernacle  or 
Holy  of  Holies. 

In  the  sanctuary  as  a  whole  there  are  very  carefully 
distinguished  the  two  parts,  and  so  too  the  two  sets  of 
functions  connected  with  them.  The  first  service  or 
set  of  services,  which  went  on  continuously,  and  was 
the  regular  established  worship  of  the  people  for  many 
centuries,  was  limited  to  the  Court  and  to  the  Front 
Tabernacle  or  Holy  Place.  The  second  service  per- 
tained to  the  Holiest  Place,  and  this  was  practically 
closed,  and  the  function  pertaining  to  it  was  in  abey- 
ance until  the  condition  should  be  fulfilled  which  should 
render  it  possible  to  be  enacted.  The  exception  of  the 
entrance  of  the  high  priest  alone  once  a  year  only 
served  to  emphasize  this  fact;  the  Holy  Ghost  this 
signifying,  that  the  way  into  the  Holiest  Place  had 
not  yet  been  made  manifest,  while  as  the  first  taber- 
nacle was  yet  standing.  The  first  service  was  for  the 
then  present,  and  discharged  such  function  toward 
God  as  was  at  the  time  possible;  the  second  service 
was  in  the  then  future,  and  waited  until  the  true  and 
complete  function  toward  God  should  be  made  pos- 
sible which  our  Godward  relation  demands  for  its  full 
and  perfect  expression. 

Let  us  consider  briefly  some  of  the  details  of  the 
earlier  ministry  and  worship  of  the  worldly  sanctuary, 
with  the  view  of  seeing  what  it  could  and  could  not  do, 
its  divine  significance  and  its  human  limitation.  The 
approach  through  the  Court  by  the  way  of  the  Laver 


Sacrifice  That  Takes  Away  Sin      169 

and  the  Altar  of  burnt  offering,  symbols  or  instruments 
of  purity  and  of  consecrated,  devoted  service,  is  suffi- 
ciently plain  in  its  meaning  to  need  no  comment. 
Within  the  Holy  Place  the  seven-branched  Lamp,  fed 
with  consecrated  oil,  and  ever  burning  before  the  Lord ; 
The  Table  of  shew-bread,  with  its  twelve  loaves  from 
the  purest  fruit  of  the  earth,  ever  spread  before  His 
face;  the  incense  constantly  penetrating  into  His  inner- 
most presence;  these,  too,  need  little  additional  inter- 
pretation at  our  hand.  Let  your  light  so  shine  —  offer 
to  God  the  mature  and  prepared  fruit  of  a  life  acceptable 
to  Him  —  let  your  prayers  come  before  Him  as  incense, 
—  when  have  these  not  been,  and  when  will  they  ever 
cease  to  be,  the  natural  and  inevitable  acts  and  expres- 
sions of  true  religion  and  real  worship  ? 

God,  too,  it  has  been  in  different  ways  said,  wants 
His  gifts  and  offerings  and  sacrifices  at  our  hands. 
It  is  little  that  the  helpless  infant  or  little  child  can 
really  give  or  do  to  the  father  or  mother  who  gives 
and  does  everything  to  and  for  it.  But  what  it  can 
and  does  give  is  light  to  the  eye  and  food  to  the  heart 
and  joy  to  the  soul  of  the  loving  parent.  God  calls 
upon  us  as  we  upon  Him  for  His  daily  bread.  Our 
Lord  knew;  and  He  said,  Herein  is  my  Father  glori- 
fied, that  ye  bear  much  fruit.  Along  with  the  other 
expressions  of  worship  in  the  outer  parts  of  the  sanc- 
tuary, went  on  also  all  the  time  the  ancient  forms  of 
sacrifice;  the  peace-offering  expressive  of  unbroken 
union  and  communion  with  God;  the  burnt  offering, 
with  its  promise  or  profession  of  whole-hearted  devoted 


170        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

service  or  obedience;  the  sin-offering,  for  the  con- 
fession of  sin  and  its  forgiveness  upon  repentance. 
We  can  readily  see  how  in  the  old  worship  there 
were  the  elements  of  a  very  developed  and  signifi- 
cant transaction  of  the  soul's  business  with  God.  If 
spiritually  better  and  better  understood,  and  more 
and  more  faithfully  appropriated  and  applied,  it 
would  be  difficult  to  conceive  or  devise  a  more  effective 
religion  and  worship  than  that  which  God's  people  had 
received  from  His  own  hand  before  and  in  preparation 
for  the  coming  of  Christ.  Nor  may  we  say  that  the 
religion  and  worship  of  the  Old  Testament  did  not 
bear  the  most  eminent  and  effective  fruit.  The  religion 
that  made  that  Hebrew  people,  that  produced  its  liter- 
ature, that  inspired  its  historians,  psalmists,  poets, 
prophets,  that  brought  the  world  up  to  Christ,  and  in 
Him  to  God,  what  too  much  can  we  say  of  its  worth 
and  its  work  ? 

And  yet  the  point  of  our  Epistle  and  of  our  argument 
is,  alongside  of  the  true  significance  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment religion  and  worship,  its  essential  insufficiency 
and  its  practical  impotency  and  actual  failure.  The 
explanation  of  this  will  be  found  fully  revealed  only  in 
the  exposition  of  the  essential  sufficiency  and  the  prac- 
tical and  actual  efficiency  of  the  true  religion  and 
worship  for  which  its  very  failure  prepared.  But  be- 
fore coming  to  that,  let  us  reflect  a  little  upon  the  mean- 
ing of  failure  and  success  in  religion.  It  all  turns  upon 
what  or  how  much  religion  is  to  be  expected  to  do  for 
us. 


Sacrifice  That  Takes  Away  Sin       171 

To  what  extent,  or  in  what  sense,  is  it  a  fact  that 
there  is  a  growing  tendency  not  to  expect  religion  to  do 
anything  at  all  for  us  ?  By  that  I  mean  nothing  at  all 
other  than  what  we  do  for  ourselves  with  it.  Of  course, 
the  getting  for  ourselves  clearer  and  purer  views  of 
what  God  means  to  us,  of  what  religion  means  for  us, 
of  how  we  may  best  appropriate  and  apply  to  ourselves 
the  benefits  and  blessings  of  those  truer  meanings,  that 
is  doing  a  great  deal  for  ourselves  with  our  religion, 
and  we  might  understand  one's  being  quite  religious, 
and  very  rationally  and  refinedly  religious  in  that  way. 
But,  according  to  that,  religion  would  be  absolutely 
nothing  outside  of  our  own  evolutional  mental  concep- 
tion and  moral  application  of  something  of  our  own 
which  we  choose  to  call  religion.  The  truest  religion 
would  be  the  highest  evolution  up  to  date  of  the  thing 
so  called.  Religion  would  be  for  ever  the  truest  hith- 
erto meaning,  the  highest  as  yet  expression  of  something 
not  existent,  or  existent  only  as  that  meaning  or  that 
expression.  In  other  words,  religion  is  always  only  an 
idea  or  conception  or  sentiment  of  our  own,  never 
having  any  objective  concrete  existence  in  itself.  We 
make  it,  and  it  is  forever  just  so  much  as  we  have 
made.  There  is  no  actual  absolute  and  complete 
religion. 

The  truth  in  the  above  view,  so  far  as  it  goes,  is 
that  relatively  to  ourselves  religion  is  only  so  much  as 
Ave  know  of  it  and  as  we  appropriate  and  use  of  it.  Its 
efficacy  is  only  its  actual  efficacy;  it  is  true  that  it  does 
for  us  only  what  we  ourselves  do  for  ourselves  with  it, 


172        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

and  so  is  to  us  just  what  we  ourselves  make  it.  This 
cannot  be  otherwise;  religion  cannot  be  something  else 
which  takes  the  place  of  ourselves.  It  must  be  that 
which  enables  us  to  be  ourselves,  and  which  cannot 
therefore  but  wait  upon  our  own  being  so. 

From  the  standpoint  of  our  Epistle  and  of  our 
argument,  which  is  that  of  Christianity,  the  one-sided- 
ness  of  the  view  we  have  been  discussing  consists  in  its 
limiting  the  truth  of  religion  to  the  very  finite  degree  of 
our  own  apprehension  and  appropriation  of  it,  and  prac- 
tically making  our  own  imperfect  knowledge  and  use 
the  maker,  the  cause  instead  of  the  incomplete  effect, 
of  it.  The  position  on  the  contrary  of  the  Epistle,  and 
of  Christianity,  is  to  see  religion  not  in  the  subjectively 
partial  conception  and  attainment  of  men,  but  in  the 
objectively  complete  mind  and  accomplishment  of  God. 
I  will  not  pause  to  consider  the  question  whether,  if  we 
are  capable  of  a  conscious,  free,  and  understanding 
relation  to  God,  that  is  to  say,  a  personal  relation,  God 
is  not  capable  of  at  least  such  a  personal  relation  to  us. 
We  need  not  speak  of  any  religious  relation  to  God  at 
all,  if  we  do  not  mean  one  not  only  of  susceptibility  and 
obligation  on  our  part  but  of  influence  and  demand  on 
His.  And  when  we  have  admitted  the  fact  of  a  divine 
influence  and  demand  at  all,  where  shall  we  stop  as 
the  limit  of  its  possibilities  ?  Is  religion  to  stop  at  the 
good  we  may  do  ourselves  with  it,  and  admit  no  good 
that  God  may  do  to  us  through  it  ?  Is  it  to  be  measured 
and  defined  by  what  we  can  do  and  not  by  what  He 
can  do?     The  position  of  Christianity  is  that  religion, 


Sacrifice  TJmt  Takes  Away  Sin      173 

the  religion  of  the  world,  of  humanity,  of  every  man,  is 
complete,  not  only  completely  thought  but  completely 
accomplished,  with  God,  no  matter  how  incompletely 
realized  or  known  it  may  be  with  men. 

The  difference  and  distance  between  Judaism,  or 
any  other  relative,  preparatory,  or  what  the  Apostle 
would  call  worldly  or  earthly  religion,  and  the  final, 
absolute,  and  divine  religion,  is  that  between  the  im- 
perfectly conceived,  expressed,  and  attained  truth  with 
men,  and  the  absolute  and  complete  truth  eternally 
with  God,  and  in  time  revealed  by  His  Word  and 
imparted  in  His  Spirit.  When,  therefore,  with  all  the 
truth,  the  beauty,  and  the  goodness  that  were  in  it,  our 
Apostle  speaks  to  his  compatriots  of  the  weakness  and 
unprofitableness  of  the  old  religion  and  the  old  worship, 
we  can  estimate  and  measure  that  weakness  and  un- 
profitableness only  by  the  meaning  of  the  efficacy  and 
the  power  of  what  was  to  take  their  place.  Jesus  Christ 
is  God's  revelation  and  expression  of  absolute  religion, 
the  truth  of  humanity  and  of  every  man  before  God. 

Whenever  in  this  epistle  the  inefficacy  of  any  partial 
religion  is  spoken  of,  it  is  expressed  as  an  inability  to 
complete  or  perfect,  that  is,  to  bring  and  reconcile  to 
God,  to  redeem,  or  sanctify,  or  glorify,  to  impart  holi- 
ness or  righteousness  or  eternal  life.  The  law  perfects 
or  completes  nothing;  on  the  contrary  Jesus  Christ  is 
everywhere  described  in  terms  of  humanity  completed 
and  perfected,  in  His  relation  with  God,  in  His  accom- 
plished sonship,  in  everything  that  constitutes  an  abso- 
lute religion.     The  impossibilities  of  the  law,  whether 


174        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

in  its  moral  demands  or  in  its  ritual  conveyances,  were 
all  accomplished  in  Him.  Sin  was  abolished  and  eter- 
nal life  achieved.  Christ  is  the  absolute  transaction 
and  relation  between  God  and  man,  or  He  was  nothing. 
To  make  Him  only  the  most  eminent  and  successful  of 
the  many  tentative  approaches  to  a  God  who  is  Himself 
only  the  highest  idealization  of  nature  and  of  humanity 
is  just  the  contradiction  of  the  whole  position  and 
argument  before  us  in  the  Scriptures. 

And  so  we  come  back  now  from  the  perfection  of  the 
result  attained  to  that  of  the  act  or  process  of  its  perfect 
attainment.  And  we  return  also  to  the  symbolism  of 
the  Tabernacle  service  to  find  illustration  and  expression 
for  it.  The  priests  went  continuously  into  the  first 
tabernacle,  the  Holy,  accomplishing  the  services;  but 
into  the  second,  the  Holiest  or  Holy  of  Holies,  the  high 
priest  alone,  once  in  the  year,  not  without  blood,  which 
He  offered  for  himself,  and  for  the  errors  of  the  people. 
The  whole  procedure  was  a  parable  for  the  time  then 
present;  according  to  which  were  offered  both  gifts  and 
sacrifices  that  could  never,  as  touching  the  conscience, 
make  the  worshipper  perfect,  being,  as  they  were,  only 
carnal  ordinances  imposed  until  a  time  of  reformation. 
The  whole  argument  reaches  here  its  crisis,  the  points 
being,  first,  the  entrance  and  way  into  the  Holiest  place, 
and,  second,  that  being  not  without  blood.  The  two 
ultimate  truths  of  religion  are  here,  and  generally  in  the 
New  Testament,  identified  with  the  significant  rites  of 
the  ancient  worship,  but  the  object,  here  and  generally, 
is  to  universalize  these  forms  or  figures,  not  alone  to 


Sacrifice  That  Takes  Away  Sin      175 

express  the  truths  by  them  but  to  interpret  them  by  or 
translate  them  into  the  truths  themselves. 

Let  us  then,  for  the  moment,  drop  the  figures  of  the 
Holiest  Place  and  the  Blood,  and  look  at  the  truths 
divested  of  all  imagery.  We  are  to  study  an  act,  to 
us  the  central  and  supreme  act  or  fact  of  the  universe, 
in  and  by  which  humanity  in  the  person  of  its  Head 
brings  itself  and  is  brought  to  God,  equally  and  identi- 
cally at-one-s  itself  and  is  at-one-d  with  Him,  redeems 
itself  and  is  redeemed  from  sin,  rises  and  is  raised  from 
death.  All  these  are  acts,  or  rather  this  in  all  its  points 
of  view  and  forms  of  expression  is  an  act,  at  once 
wholly  divine  and  wholly  human.  It  is  not  that  God 
performs  one  part  and  man  another  in  it,  but  each 
performs  the  whole,  God's  part  being  accomplished 
only  in  man's,  and  man's  only  in  God's.  The  Incar- 
nation is  at  no  point  ever  only  a  co-operation  or  co- 
partnership. God  is  everywhere  all  in  all,  and  yet 
always  to  the  personal  fulfilment  and  never  the  extinc- 
tion of  ourselves.  The  Holiest  Place  is  never  only  a 
place,  the  most  exalted;  it  is  a  relation,  the  most  com- 
plete and  perfect.  We  might  drop  the  local  figure 
altogether,  and  the  truth  of  an  achieved,  perhaps  rather 
than  a  restored,  oneness  with  God  (though  there  is 
truth  in  the.  latter  expression  also);  of  an  attained 
redemption  from  sin;  of  a  realized  holiness,  righteous- 
ness, and  life,  would  remain  true  all  the  same.  To  be 
brought  to  God,  in  all  the  spiritual  meaning  of  being, 
and  by  all  the  spiritual  process  of  becoming,  near  to 
God  and  one  with  God,  is  a  truth  that  for  itself  needs 


176        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

no  material  imagery;  but  such  is  our  need  to  under- 
stand and  express  the  invisible  by  the  visible,  the 
spiritual  by  the  natural  or  physical,  that  it  is  not  for 
us  to  despise  or  discard  the  use  of  the  one  for  the  ends 
of  the  other. 

Oneness  and  at-one-ment  with  God,  then,  thing  and 
process,  end  and  way,  is  the  essential  matter  to  which 
we  have  come;  and  the  way  is  by  blood.  There  is  no 
access  to  God  to  be  completed  or  perfected  without  it. 
Let  us  drop  the  figure  of  the  blood  too,  and  see  what 
the  truth  is  by  itself.  What  the  Apostle  wants  to  ex- 
plain and  justify  is  the  all-importance  attached  in  the 
Scriptures  and  in  Christianity  to  the  death  of  Jesus 
Christ.  The  question  is  whether,  if  there  had  never 
been  in  Judaism  or  in  the  world  the  material  imagery 
or  symbolism  of  blood  shed  or  of  animal  sacrifice,  the 
death  of  Christ  would  not  still,  in  all  that  it  meant  and 
was  in  itself,  have  been  the  supremely  necessary  and 
essential  thing  it  now  is  in  Christianity. 

Death  means  the  ultimate,  the  limit,  the  last  or  end 
of  a  thing.  Of  course  it  applies  only  to  tilings  that 
are  to  pass  away.  But  things  that  are  to  pass  away 
are  to  pass  away,  and  nothing  short  of  death  expresses 
the  completeness  of  that  act  or  fact.  St.  Paul  insists 
that  as  Jesus  Christ  was  the  perfect  end  of  the  law 
in  one  sense,  so  he  was  to  be  the  absolute  end  of  it  in 
the  other.  As  He  was  its  perfect  fulfilment  so  He  should 
be  its  complete  termination.  Our  Lord  was  not  only 
the  passing  but  the  putting  away  of  many  things,  and 
the  complete  and   perfect   putting  away.     Above   all 


Sacrifice  That  Takes  Away  Sin      111 

things  He  was  the  putting  away  of  sin  and  death, 
and  so  of  every  human  condition  and  position  incom- 
patible in  themselves  with  the  full  realization  of 
holiness   and   life. 

That  attitude  of  mere  tilings,  of  physical  sequence 
and  mechanical  necessity  which  we  call  nature  or  the 
natural,  He  included  but  perfectly  transcended,  and 
lived  in  a  higher  world  of  personal  spirit  and  a  living 
God.  The  attitude  of  mere  self,  of  our  own  being 
or  becoming  ourselves,  He  utterly  died  to  and  passed 
beyond  into  the  life  neither  of  nor  for  Himself;  in  other 
words,  He  put  off  the  flesh  for  the  spirit,  the  natural 
and  psychical  for  the  spiritual  man.  The  perfection 
of  His  life  in  the  new  could  only  be  measured  by  the 
completeness  of  His  death  in  and  to  the  old. 

But  let  us  narrow  down  all  these  expressions  to,  liter- 
ally, the  crucial  issue  of  human  life  and  destiny,  the  issue 
of  spiritual  and  moral  quality  and  character.  Every- 
thing for  us  turns  upon  ourselves  and  of  what  sort  we 
are.  Life  is  purely  a  matter  of  choice,  of  self-decision 
and  determination;  all  that  we  ought  to  be  is  every- 
where over  against  an  all  that  we  ought  not  to  be. 
If  we  have  to  become  ourselves  by  an  all  life,  we  can 
only  do  so  by  an  all  death.  The  death  of  Jesus  Christ 
is  His  complete  and  perfect  not  being,  ceasing  to  be, 
or  refusing  at  all  cost  to  be,  and  so  abolishing  and 
ending  in  Himself  everything  that  our  humanity 
needed  or  ought  to  die  to  and  leave  behind  in 
order  to  the  attainment  of  itself  and  its  destiny.  Just 
what  makes  Jesus  Christ  not  merely  one  of  us,  but  The 
13 


178        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

One,  with  an  infinite  difference  of  degree,  is  the  act 
and  fact  of  His  death,  the  fact  that  all  that  He  was  not 
He  was  not  to  the  limit,  to  the  end,  so  that  we  say  that 
He  was  absolutely  not  the  natural  but  the  spiritual  man, 
not  in  the  flesh  but  in  the  spirit,  above  all  absolutely 
dead  to  sin,  and  absolutely  alive  to  God.  This  death 
is  absolutely  the  thing  to  be  desired,  the  unattainable, 
the  impossible  thing  for  us  all.  There  is  no  getting 
rid  of  any  kind  of  evil  except  by  overcoming,  abolish- 
ing, putting  it  away. 

Put  away  vice,  put  away  sin,  —  how  much  of  it  ? 
How  far  away?  How  much  distance  or  difference  is 
there  between  our  puttings  away  and  His  ?  The  utter- 
ness  of  Christ's  putting  off  of  sin  and  of  death  by  His 
personal  human  conquest  of  them,  by  His  absolute 
renunciation  and  annulling  of  them,  that  is  what  we 
mean  by  His  death  to  sin.  Now  human  meanings  and 
ideations  and  imaginations  of  this  can  never  rise  above 
themselves,  can  never  be  anything  more  than  just  what 
they  are.  At  best  they  may  embody  themselves  in  forms 
which  we  recognize  as  the  religions  of  the  world.  The 
very  best  was  the  religion  that,  under  God's  special 
guidance  and  direction,  moved  most  directly  toward 
the  whole  truth  of  Jesus  Christ.  But  all  antecedent 
religions,  even  the  best,  and  whatever  of  divine  motions 
there  were  in  it,  were  but  human,  earthly,  worldly 
movements  toward  the  divine  absolute  religion  of  which 
they  were  promises  and  prophecies.  All  bringing  down 
of  Christianity  too  to  be  only  one  of  the  many  tentative 
religions  that  have  attempted  to  scale  heaven  and  break 


Sacrifice  That  Takes  Away  Sin      179 

their  way  into  the  infinite  and  the  perfect  is  a  denial 
or  non-conception  of  Christ's  actual  death  and  resur- 
rection, of  the  completeness  with  winch  He  put  off  all 
incompleteness  and  imperfection  and  put  on  the  holi- 
ness and  righteousness  and  life  of  God  himself. 

The  important  point,  I  repeat,  is  to  see  in  Jesus 
Christ  Himself,  apart  from  all  prior  prefiguration  of 
Him,  not  only  an  infinite  signification  but  an  infinite 
realization  of  religion;  the  accomplished  and  attained 
absolute  relation  between  God  and  man.  His  perfect 
death  and  perfect  life  is  the  complete  putting  off  and 
putting  away  not  only  of  all  that  is  sinful  but  of  all  that 
is  weak  and  ineffectual  in  human  act  and  effort  before, 
and  the  bringing  in  and  putting  on  in  its  stead  of  all 
that  is  strong  and  profitable  and  holy  and  living. 
Christ's  death,  I  repeat,  is  not  only  the  annulling  of 
sin,  but  the  transcending  and  leaving  behind  of  all 
impotences  and  impossibilities  of  the  world,  the  flesh, 
or  self.  It  is  the  knowing  and  having  God,  and  the 
substitution  of  Him  in  the  stead  of  all  these.  But  now, 
having  thus  affirmed  the  whole  truth  of  Christ  apart 
from  all  figures  and  prefigu rations,  let  us  return  and 
make  use  of  the  figures,  and  see  if  they  are  not  real 
helps  to  the  even  better  understanding  of  the  truth  of 
Christ. 

The  high  priest  before  Christ  could  not  enter  into 
the  Holy  of  Holies  without  blood;  and  when  once  in 
the  year  he  entered  with  it,  the  circumstances  of  his 
doing  so  all  indicated  that  his  entrance  was  only  a 
ritual  and  representative  and  not  a  real  one,  because 


180        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

the  blood  only  meant  and  was  not  that  which  actually 
takes  away  sin.  The  whole  religion  at  that  stage  was 
nothing  more  than  a  sign  of  the  truth,  and  mere  signs 
are  not  things.  That  does  not  assert  that  there  is  no 
value  or  virtue  in  them.  It  is  better  for  us  to  know 
what  truth  is,  what  virtue,  and  holiness,  and  righteous- 
ness, and  life  are,  however  little  these  in  their  totality 
may  be  attainable  by  us.  At  any  rate  to  know  some- 
thing of  them,  to  recognize  and  acknowledge  our  need 
and  feel  and  confess  our  want  of  them,  to  earnestly 
desire  and  ever  so  faintly  hope  and  strive  for  them,  is 
a  better  attitude  towards  them  and  makes  us  better 
than  no  attitude  or  than  any  other. 

How  much  further  than  this  can  any  religion  go 
which  is  only  man's  self-attained  attitude  toward  the 
precious  things  of  religion  ?  Is  that  all  that  religion 
can  ever  say  to  us  of  these  things  ?  No,  all  the 
things  that  meant  the  taking  away  of  sin  were  dis- 
tinct promises  from  God  of  the  thing  that  should  take 
away  sin.  The  blood  of  bulls  and  goats,  of  course, 
could  not  take  away  sin,  but  it  spake  of  a  blood  that 
could  and  would,  that  would  itself  be  the  actual  wash- 
ing away  or  expunging  of  sin.  The  veil  of  separation 
still  stood  before  the  Holiest  Place,  but  the  annual 
entrance  that  left  it  still  closed  pointed  forward  to  the 
act  that  should  forever  rend  it  asunder  from  top  to 
bottom. 

The  figure  is  kept  up  of  the  blood  of  the  annual 
entrance  being  always  offered  up  for  the  high  priest  as 
well  as  the  people,  and  the  truth  prefigured  is  the  fact 


Sacrifice  That  Takes  Away  Sin      181 

that  remains,  that  the  act  in  and  by  which  humanity 
first  in  itself  in  Christ  abolished  sin  potentially  abolished 
sin  in  all  us,  the  people,  in  Him.  I  cannot  refrain  from 
venturing  a  little  beyond  the  warrant  of  Scripture  ini 
interpreting  the  sin  or  sins  for  which  that  blood  wasl4' 
shed.  It  was  not  particular,  conscious  or  intentional, 
sins;  it  was  the  great  unknown,  undiscriminated  mass 
of  error  and  failure  and  transgression,  of  weakness  and 
incompleteness  and  imperfection,  of  which  our  life  is 
still  and  always  made  up.  The  great  death  was  to  be 
the  death  of  all  that.  Not  only  our  actual  personal 
sins,  but  the  whole  world  of  irresistible  temptation,  the 
whole  flesh  of  mortal  weakness,  of  impossible  obedi- 
ence, of  unattainable  holiness  or  life,  died  in  and  with 
Him. 

The  services  of  the  Tabernacle  were  a  parable, 
according  to  which  were  offered  up  gifts  and  sacrifices 
that  cannot,  as  touching  the  conscience,  make  the 
comers  thereunto  perfect.  As  pertaining  to  the  con- 
science;—  there  was  something  which  they  could  per- 
fectly effect,  and  that  too  something  not  wholly  in  the 
letter  but  of  some  value  in  the  spirit.  Let  us  suppose 
the  case  of  a  worshipper  who  by  those  ritual  acts  really 
confessed  his  sin,  and  expressed  his  wants,  and  desired 
through  them  pardon  and  deliverance;  however  in- 
effectual the  forms,  however  absent  the  provision  for 
any  actual  means  of  relief  through  them,  would  there 
be  no  good  done,  no  benefit  conferred  and  received  ? 
I  will  not  say  what  or  how  much,  but  at  the  least  the 
ancient  worshipper  was  reconciled  with  the  outward 


182        High  Priesthood  mid  Sacrifice 

institution  which  he  had  transgressed,  his  status  in  it 
was  restored  or  his  standing  made  perfect.  The  blood 
of  bulls  and  goats  sprinkling  them  that  had  been 
defiled  could  sanctify  to  the  cleanness  of  the  flesh;  it 
could  effect  a  ceremonial  cleansing  which  was  far  from 
useless. 

But  does  not  even  so  much  mean  a  great  deal  more 
in  religion  ?  And  is  there  not  a  more  perfect  provision 
for  that  great  deal  more  ?  The  ancient  imperfect  relig- 
ion had  done  more  than  anything  else  in  the  world  to 
develop  the  human  consciousness  and  the  human  con- 
science. It  had  given  the  world  sin  at  least  if  not 
holiness,  and  that  was  half-way  toward  the  reception  of 
holiness.  It  was  the  condition  of  the  power  to  receive, 
even  though  it  was  not  yet  the  gift.  It  was  the  creation 
of  the  want,  the  appetite,  which  are  necessary  to  diges- 
tion and  assimilation. 

The  spiritual  and  moral  consciousness  and  con- 
science are,  like  everything  else  in  us,  subject  to  the 
laws  of  evolution.  Begin  with  ever  so  initial  a  sense 
of  God  and  our  relation  to  Him,  of  God's  law  and 
our  obligation  to  it,  and  though  it  be  myriads  of  ages 
off,  humanity  will  not  stop  short  of  its  true  conception, 
and  can  never  be  content  to  stop  short  of  its  actual 
attainment  in  Jesus  Christ.  He  is  the  predestined  and 
the  destined  end  of  the  spiritual  consciousness  and  the 
moral  conscience  of  mankind. 

Consciousness  and  conscience  are  the  same  except 
that  the  one  deals  with  facts  and  truth  and  the  other 
with  acts  and  duty.     How  nothing  else  than  Christ  can 


Sacrifice  That  Takes  Away  Sin      183 

satisfy  or  perfect  the  consciousness  or  the  conscience 
becomes  at  once  apparent  when  we  see  how  He  does 
satisfy  and  perfect  them.  In  Him  we  rest  in  the  per- 
fected and  satisfied  sense  of  accomplished  relationship 
or  oneness  with  God,  and  consequent  perfect  conformity 
to  His  will  and  obedience  to  His  law. 

But  the  preparatory  dispensation  of  mere  law, 
whether  that  law  was  expressed  in  moral  precepts  or 
in  ritual  acts,  only  more  and  more  enlightened  the 
spiritual  consciousness  and  conscience,  without  supply- 
ing the  necessary  provision  for  their  relief  and  satis- 
faction. Men  under  it  only  saw  more  and  more  clearly 
the  fact  of  their  difference  and  distance  from  God,  and 
felt  more  deeply  at  once  the  necessity  and  the  impos- 
sibility of  being  at  one  with  Him.  So  by  the  law  was 
only  the  knowledge  of  sin ;  the  law  made  nothing  per- 
fect as  pertaining  either  to  the  consciousness  or  the 
conscience;  it  only  revealed  separation  from  God  and 
aggravated  rebellion  against  His  law.  The  merely 
provisional  and  significant  preparatory  dealing  with 
the  matter  through  the  animal  sacrifices  meant  much 
and  accomplished  little;  they  were  only  carnal  ordi- 
nances imposed  until  a  time  of  perfect  straightening 
out  and  final  right  settlement.  Such  a  time  of  refor- 
mation or  restitution  is  generally  looked  forward  to 
and  alluded  to  in  the  Scriptures. 

St.  Paul  refers  to  it  when  he  says  to  the  Athenians, 
The  times  of  ignorance  God  overlooked;  but  now  He 
commandeth  men  that  they  should  all  everywhere 
repent;  inasmuch  as  He  hath  appointed  a  day,  in  the 


184        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

which  He  will  judge  the  world  in  righteousness  by  the 
man  whom  He  hath  ordained;  whereof  He  hath  given 
assurance  unto  all  men,  in  that  He  hath  raised  him 
from  the  dead.  And  again,  St.  Paul  in  his  exposition 
of  Jesus  Christ  as  our  redemption  from  sin  and  pro- 
pitiation with  God  through  His  blood,  describes  a 
twofold  setting  forth  of  God's  righteousness,  first  in 
explanation  of  His  passing  over  of  the  sins  done  afore- 
time, in  (the  time  of)  the  forbearance  of  God,  and, 
second,  in  the  demonstration  at  this  present  season  of 
God's  being  not  only  righteous  in  Himself  but  the 
righteousness  too  of  him  who  believes  in  Jesus.  The 
argument  is  that  God  had  hitherto  dispensed  a  pro- 
visional, representative  righteousness  through  the  vica- 
rious blood  of  animals  and  other  such  types  and  signs, 
but  that  now  He  dispenses  an  actual  and  real  righteous- 
ness through  the  blood  of  Jesus. 

"But  Christ,  having  come  a  high  priest  of  the  good 
things  to  come,  through  the  greater  and  more  perfect 
tabernacle,  not  made  with  hands,  that  is  to  say,  not  of 
this  creation,  nor  yet  through  the  blood  of  goats  and 
calves,  but  through  His  own  blood,  entered  in  once  for 
all  into  the  Holiest  place,  having  obtained  eternal 
redemption."  The  truth  of  the  divine  figure  will  per- 
haps be  brought  out  best  by  a  now  more  detailed 
exposition  of  the  greater  and  more  perfect  tabernacle, 
after  which  the  hand-built,  humanly-constructed  one 
was  patterned.  The  true  heavenly  tabernacle  is,  by 
common  consent,  what  we  call  the  Body  of  Christ, 
meaning  by  that  His  entire  humanity,  the  whole  truth 


Sacrifice  That  Takes  Away  Sin      185 

of  the  Incarnation.  Of  course  we  shall  enlarge  this  to 
mean  not  only  His  natural  body  or  individual  humanity 
but  His  mystical  body,  the  Church  or  whole  body  of 
redeemed  humanity  included  in  Him.  But  first  and 
for  the  present  let  us  limit  our  attention  to  Himself  and 
what  was  accomplished  in  Him. 

The  entire  tabernacle  symbolized  Christ,  the  Holy 
as  well  as  the  Holiest  place,  and  the  functions  proper 
to  them  both.  Jesus  Christ  took  our  flesh  and  blood 
as  well  as  we  become  partakers  of  His.  He  assumed 
our  natural  humanity  as  we  are  taken  up  into  and  as- 
similated to  His  spiritual  humanity.  There  was  in 
Him  as  in  us  the  natural  as  well  as  the  spiritual  man, 
the  flesh  as  well  as  the  spirit.  He  shared  all  our 
deficiencies  and  insufficiencies,  all  our  natural  weak- 
nesses and  impossibilities.  He  needed  to  be  at-one-d 
with  God,  redeemed  from  sin,  raised  from  death, 
completed  and  perfected  in  holiness,  righteousness, 
and  life,  just  as  we,  and  in  the  same  way  and  by 
the  same  means.  The  salvation  which  like  us  He 
needed  was  not  from  sins  of  His  own  like  ours,  but 
from  a  condition  and  from  conditions  otherwise  identi- 
cal with  ours.  From  these  He  could  be  saved  only  by 
faith,  by  prayer,  by  grace,  above  all  by  that  perfect 
attitude  and  relation  of  God  to  human  salvation,  and 
that  perfect  provision  of  God  for  human  salvation  which 
are  revealed  and  given  to  us  all  in  Him.  He  needed 
not  Himself,  humanly,  to  be  saved  from  sins  of  His 
own,  because  His  perfect  salvation  consisted  only  in 
His   not  having  such  sins,   through  His  own   perfect 


186        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

conquest  and  abolition  of  sin  in  Himself.  It  was  not 
that  He  did  not  have  by  His  very  humanity  to  meet 
sin,  nor  that  He  was  not  sorely  tempted  by  sin ;  He  was 
only  not  tempted  by  His  own  sins,  and,  in  that  sense, 
by  sin  within  Himself;  in  every  other  way  He  was 
tempted  like  as  we  are.  It  was  not  that  either  His 
nature  or  Himself  in  the  nature  was  efficient  or  sufficient 
against  the  sin;  neither  the  will  of  the  flesh  nor  the  will 
of  man  was  in  Him  more  than  in  others  able  to  save 
Him  from  the  sin  of  the  flesh.  He  was  saved  by  prayer 
and  supplication,  with  strong  crying  and  tears,  to  Him 
who  was  able  to  save  Him,  by  the  right  laying  hold 
upon  and  holding  to  Him  who  was  higher  than  He 
and  was  His  only  salvation. 

In  Jesus  Christ,  I  repeat,  there  was  all  the  natural 
man  as  well  as  all  the  spiritual  man;  and  just  the 
perfect  lesson  and  meaning  of  His  human  life  was 
the  interrelation  and  interaction  of  these  two,  the 
natural  transition  from  the  one  to  the  other,  the  per- 
fect gradual  dying  in  the  one  in  order  to  the  perfect 
living  in  the  other.  The  natural  is  not  sinful  in 
itself,  it  is  only  insufficient  for  sinlessness  or  for 
holiness  in  itself.  It  has  not  to  be  died  to  or  dis- 
carded for  anything  in  itself;  it  has  to  be  died  to  or 
transcended  for  something  not  in,  or  beyond,  itself. 
In  order  to  realize  ourselves  we  have  to  pass  out  of 
and  die  to  both  nature  and  ourselves  and  to  fulfil 
God  in  ourselves;  but  in  fulfilling  Him  we  are  fulfilling 
them.  All  this  means  that  in  Jesus  Christ  as  in  us 
there  was  the  one  issue  upon  which  all  humanity  turns, 


Sacrifice  That  Takes  Away  Sin      187 

the  dual  possibility,  the  one  choice  between  alternatives. 
The  issue  and  choice  at  bottom  is  not  between  good  and 
bad,  virtue  and  vice,  sin  and  holiness;  it  is  between  God 
and  self.  The  man  who  abides  in  nature  and  trusts  to 
himself  has  no  choice,  in  effect.  I  do  not  mean  to  say 
that  men  in  themselves,  or,  as  we  say,  in  nature,  may 
not  differ  widely,  morally,  and  even  spiritually.  The 
spiritual  and  moral  consciousness  and  conscience  is  not 
wanting  in  them,  and  they  stand  in  all  possible  kinds 
and  degrees  of  attitude  and  relation  to  it.  But  the  fact 
remains  that  the  higher  and  truer  the  development  of 
the  spiritual  consciousness,  only  the  more  certainly  does 
the  man  know  that  in  himself,  and  within  the  resources 
of  nature,  there  is  no  escape  for  him  from  sin. 

The  issue,  then,  is  not  between  sin  and  holiness, 
it  is  between  ourselves  and  God.  To  be  only  in  our- 
selves is  the  flesh,  to  be  in  God  for  holiness  and  life 
is  the  spirit.  The  choice  between  these  two  is  the 
issue  upon  which  ourselves  and  our  destinies  turn,  by 
the  decision  of  which  they  are  forever  determined. 
When  we  speak  of  this  spiritual  and  moral  issue  we 
speak  not  of  something  incidental  or  accidental  in  us, 
but  of  that  which  conditions  our  freedom  and  creates 
and  constitutes  our  personality,  or,  in  other  words, 
ourselves.  To  think  of  our  Lord  as  not  possessing, 
or  not  positively  to  think  of  Him  as  possessing,  this 
freedom  of  choice,  as  subject  to  this  issue  and  as  having 
to  decide  it  as  we  do,  is  to  think  of  Him  as  lacking 
the  essential  and  the  distinction  of  humanity;  it  is  to 
rob  His  human  life  of  all  its  meaning  and  truth., 


THE  BLOOD  OF  THE  NEW  COVENANT 

Hebrews  9-10 

As  the  whole  tabernacle  typified  our  Lord's  hu- 
manity; because,  as  we  shall  see,  it  represents  humanity 
in  general,  in  its  twofold  constitution  and  relation  of 
flesh  and  spirit;  so  the  outer  tabernacle,  the  Holy,  with 
its  functions,  represented  His  natural  manhood,  or 
the  flesh;  while  the  inner  tabernacle,  the  Holiest  Place 
with  its  appointments  and  services,  represented  His 
spiritual  manhood,  or  what  in  general  we  call  the 
spirit. 

Our  nature  is  in  itself  not  only  physical  but  rational, 
moral,  and,  potentially  at  least,  even  spiritual.  We 
are  constituted  for  relations  not  only  with  the  world 
of  sense  but  with  the  higher  world  of  spirit.  There  is 
such  a  thing,  then,  as  natural  religion,  and  less  and  less 
are  we  disposed  to  say  that  God  is  not,  less  or  more, 
in  all  sincere  natural  religions.  Especially  do  we 
recognize  His  presence  and  positive  part  in  that  highest 
of  human  religions  that  issued  in  Christianity.  We 
have  seen  how  all  the  ministries  and  services  which 
terminated  in  the  Holy  place  were  most  significantly 
expressive  of  true  religion.  Nevertheless  all  those 
services  are  represented  as  of  the  flesh,  of  the  world. 

188 


Blood  of  the  New  Covenant  189 

However  God  might,  in  a  sense,  meet  them,  accept 
them,  set  up  a  provisional  status  of  relations  based 
upon  them,  that  is,  based  upon  all  that  it  was  possible 
for  man  in  himself  to  do  for  himself  in  his  Godward  re- 
lation, still  there  was  eveiy  indication  that  that  religion, 
as  every  human  religion,  was  a  mere  tentative,  relative, 
provisional  thing,  at  best  a  finite  human  preparation 
for  and  reaching  forward  to  meet  what  on  the  contrary 
must  be  an  absolute  divine  provision  and  supply. 
Thus  the  Holy  place  in  the  tabernacle  stood  for  the 
highest  in  the  natural  life  and  religion  of  man,  and  yet 
that  highest  still  separated  from  God  by  a  closed  veil, 
an  impassable  chasm.  The  thing  confronted  at  the 
end  of  every  approach,  at  the  close  of  every  service, 
was  the  fact  that  the  way  into  the  Holy  of  Holies  was 
not  yet  opened.  There  was  something  even  in  Jesus 
Christ,  in  His  natural  humanity,  in  His  human  self, 
between  Himself  and  God.  He  shared  our  infirmity, 
our  deficiency,  our  insufficiency,  He  was  subject  to  the 
condition  upon  which  alone  we  can  come  to  God. 
That  condition  is  nothing  short  of  the  absolute  and 
complete  one  of  dying  in  our  mere  nature,  dying  to  our- 
selves, in  order  to  live  to  God.  In  order  to  die  to  sin, 
He  too  must  die  to  nature  and  to  self,  and  dying  to 
them  He  died  to  it.  The  transition  from  sin  to  holi- 
ness, from  death  to  life,  is  involved  in  that  from  the 
flesh  to  the  spirit,  and  the  remainder  of  our  argument 
is  to  show  that  that  passage  cannot  be  made  without 
blood,  or  otherwise  than  through  death.  The  reason 
and   the  details  of  this  will  appear  as  we  proceed. 


190        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

But  let  us  turn  back  for  a  moment  for  a  brief  antici- 
patory glance  at  the  symbolism  of  the  Holiest  place  as 
meaning  the  spiritual  or  the  spirit  in  our  Lord  in  con- 
trast with  the  flesh.  The  Holiest  place  was  the  place 
of  the  actual  presence  of  God,  of  the  meeting  of  God 
and  man,  of  the  great  At-one-ment.  The  Mercy-seat 
which  represented  all  this  was  the  Lid  or  Covering  of 
the  Ark.  The  Ark  of  the  Covenant,  the  new  covenant 
of  the  perfected  relation  between  God  and  man,  had 
for  its  content  the  Tables  of  Stone  or  Book  of  the  Law, 
but  accompanied  by  two  other  expressive  signs  of  the 
fact  that  the  obedience  or  righteousness  of  the  true 
covenant  was  to  be  that  not  of  nature  but  of  grace, 
not  of  the  flesh  but  of  the  spirit,  not  of  the  will  or  works 
of  man  but  of  the  Spirit  and  power  of  God.  Aaron's 
Rod  that  budded  and  the  Pot  of  Manna  signified  the 
birth  and  the  life  from  above  which  were  to  be  the 
source  and  the  nourishment  of  the  New  Righteousness. 
But  the  way  into  the  new  life  and  the  new  service  was 
to  be  only  through  the  Death  that  was  died  on  Calvary. 
When  we  think  of  Jesus  and  construe  Him  to  ourselves, 
we  think  of  the  perfectly  realized  spiritual  man,  the 
humanity  of  God's  presence,  of  the  accomplished 
oneness  of  God  and  man,  of  the  completed  righteous- 
ness and  life  born  of  God  and  fed  from  heaven.  And 
the  Cherubim  overshadowing  the  Mercy-seat,  are  they 
not  the  Angels  of  God  peering  down  and  desiring  to 
look  into  these  great  mysteries  of  love  and  grace  and 
salvation  ? 

We  take  up,  then,  our  parable  again  and  interpret 


Blood  of  the  New  Covenant  191 

it  as  it  goes.  Christ  the  tine  high  priest  or  perfect 
representative  of  humanity,  through  the  greater  and 
more  perfect  tabernacle  of  His  Body,  of  His  Flesh, 
of  His  Human  Life,  through  the  work  wrought  by  Him, 
actually  in  our  nature  and  potentially  in  ourselves; 
not  through  the  blood  of  bulls  and  calves,  but  through  . 
His  own  blood,  that  is,  through  the  offering  of  His 
own  life  to  God,  through  His  own  death  to  sin  and  life 
to  God;  entered  in  once  for  all  into  the  Holiest  place,  , 
that  is  to  say,  brought  humanity  into  God  through 
bringing  God  into  humanity,  and  so  accomplished  the 
great  reconciliation,  the  great  redemption,  the  great 
resurrection  and  regeneration  of  the  world.  There  is 
something  significant  in  the  turn  of  expression  when 
the  Apostle  describes  Jesus  as  thus  entering  into  the 
Holiest  place,  into  the  perfected  divine-human  relation- 
ship, having  obtained,  literally  having  found  for  Him- 
self, or  for  humanity  in  His  person,  eternal  redemption. 
I  have  often  spoken  of  the  entire  equality  of  truth 
and  propriety  with  which  our  Lord  is  spoken  of  in 
terms  of  God  and  in  terms  of  man.  It  is  as  man  that  in 
that  supreme  act  of  human  faith,  obedience,  death  to  all 
but  God  and  His  will,  His  law,  His  righteousness,  Jesus 
Christ  found  for  Himself  and  for  humanity  the  one 
eternal  redemption  and  salvation  possible  for  it.  "For 
if  the  blood  of  goats  and  bulls,  and  the  ashes  of  a  heifer 
sprinkling  them  that  have  been  defiled,  sanctify  unto 
the  cleanness  of  the  flesh :  how  much  more  shall  the  ./ 
blood  of  Christ" — and  here  comes  in  the  best  expres- 
sion of  the  spiritual  meaning  and  value  of  that  bipod 


19£        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

—  "Who  through  the  eternal  Spirit  offered  Himself 
without  blemish  unto  God,  cleanse  your  conscience 
from  dead  works  to  serve  the  living  God  ?"  Here  was 
the  perfect  act  of  the  eternal  Spirit  wrought  through 
man:  here  was  the  perfect  act  of  man  wrought  in  the 
power  of  the  eternal  Spirit;  here  was  the  perfected 
spiritual  manhood,  wrought  through  the  perfect  death 
to  self  and  so  to  sin,  and  the  perfect  life  to  God  and  so 
to  holiness  and  righteousness.  How  shall  not  that 
act,  that  offering,  cleanse  our  conscience  from  dead 
works  to  serve  the  living  God  ?  For  what  is  that  act, 
let  us  ask  ourselves  yet  once  more  ?  It  is  the  act  of 
God  becoming,  become,  our  righteousness,  our  life; 
it  is  the  act  of  ourselves  becoming,  become,  righteous, 
dying  from  sin  and  living  to  holiness  in  God.  We  have 
only  to  know  Christ  in  ourselves  and  ourselves  in 
Christ  in  order  to  die  the  death  which  is  life  to  God 
and  live  the  life  which  is  death  to  sin.  Not  only  in 
our  present  Apostle  but  in  every  interpreter  of  the 
Gospel  in  the  New  Testament,  in  St.  Paul,  St.  Peter, 
St.  John,  we  have  that  rich  experience  of  the  actual 
cleansing  of  the  conscience,  of  the  very  consciousness, 
of  sin  through  participation  in  the  perfect  death,  the 
perfect  life  out  of  death  of  Jesus  Christ. 

We  have  to  go  yet  deeper  into  the  question  of  the 
necessity  and  the  efficacy  of  that  blood.  "For  this 
cause  He  is  the  mediator  of  a  new  covenant,  that  a 
death  having  taken  place  for  the  redemption  of  the 
transgressions  that  were  under  the  first  covenant,  they 
that  have  been  called  may  receive  the  promise  of  the 


Blood  of  the  New  Covenant         193 

eternal  inheritance."  We  must  remember  that  the  very 
end  and  function  of  the  former  covenant,  being  one  of 
law,  was  to  develop  the  fact  of  transgressions,  and  with 
it  the  sense  of  sin.  A  spiritual  consciousness  trained 
under  it  would  know  to  the  utmost  not  only  the  sin  of 
evil  works  but  the  deadness  and  impossibility  of  good 
works.  Under  the  law  as  a  schoolmaster,  one  learns 
not  only  the  evil  of  doing  bad  but  the  impossibility  of 
doing  good ;  one  comes  to  long  for  redemption  not  alone 
from  sinful  works  but  from  dead  works,  to  feel  the 
necessity  of  death  not  only  from  the  sins  he  commits 
in  the  flesh  but  from  the  flesh  itself  in  which  he  cannot 
but  commit  sin. 

But  in  the  new  covenant,  not  of  law  but  of  grace, 
the  needed  death  has  taken  place  for  the  redemption 
of,  or  for  redemption  from,  the  transgressions  that 
were  under  the  first  covenant.  We  have  the  death 
from  the  flesh  which  is  the  only  death  from  sin. 
We  are  dead  from  ourselves  in  whom  there  is  not 
only  the  actuality  of  sinfulness  but  the  impossibility 
of  sinlessness,  and  alive  in  Him  in  whom  there  is  not 
only  the  impossibility  of  sin  but  the  attained  act  and 
activity  of  holiness.  By  reason  of  this  death  having 
taken  place  for  us  and  taking  place  in  us,  we  who  are 
called  may  receive  the  promise  of  the  eternal  inherit- 
ance: which  means,  the  promise  of  eternal  righteous- 
ness and  life. 

There  enters  into  the  argument  at  this  point  a  dis- 
tinction which  may  not  concern  us  now  so  much  as 
it  did  those  for  whom  the  Epistle  was  immediately 
14 


194        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

written.  It  may  be  enough  for  us  to  know  that  a  thing 
is  necessary  in  and  for  itself;  it  was  all-important  for 
them  to  know  that  it  was  necessary  according  to  the 
Scriptures  of  which  their  entire  spiritual  consciousness 
was  the  product  and  creation.  So  when  our  Author 
adds,  For  where  a  covenant  is,  there  must  of  necessity 
be  the  death  of  him  that  made  it,  the  question  arises, 
why,  or  wherein  lies,  the  necessity?  The  main  stress 
of  the  answer  given  in  the  Epistle  goes  to  prove  that  in 
all  the  course  of  God's  dealing  with  His  people  as 
recorded  in  the  Scriptures,  covenant  relation  with  God 
is  always  based  upon  constructive  death;  and  then  the 
further  question  arises,  what  does  that  mean  in  the 
nature  and  working  of  things  in  themselves? 

Let  us  first  consider  the  historical  statement  and 
fact.  A  covenant  carries  with  it  of  necessity  the  death 
of  him  that  made  it.  A  covenant  is  of  force  only  upon 
or  for  the  dead.  It  never  avails  while  he  that  made  it 
lives.  That  this  is  the  meaning  of  the  Apostle's  posi- 
tion and  argument  will  appear  sufficiently  from  its 
further  statement  and  illustration.  Wherefore,  says 
he,  even  the  first  covenant  was  not  dedicated  without 
blood.  For  when  all  arrangements  had  been  made 
for  the  dedication  of  the  first  covenant  and  tabernacle, 
Moses  took  the  blood  of  the  calves  and  the  goats  and 
sprinkled  both  the  book  itself  and  all  the  people,  say- 
ing, this  is  the  blood  of  the  covenant  which  God  com- 
manded to  youward.  Moreover  the  tabernacle  and  all 
the  vessels  of  the  ministry  he  sprinkled  in  like  manner 
with  the  blood.     And  according  to  the  law,   I  may 


Blood  of  the  New  Covenant  195 

almost  say,  all  things  are  cleansed  with  blood,  and  apart 
from  shedding  of  blood  there  is  no  remission.  The 
blood  thus  necessary  to  the  covenant,  or  the  death 
necessitated  by  it,  is  that  of  the  offerer.  Of  course  the 
worshipper  did  not  actually  and  literally  die  in  the  act 
of  his  covenant  relation  with  God,  but  he  did  so  con- 
structively, under  the  form  or  figure  of  the  victim 
whose  death  represented  his  own. 

I  have  again  and  again  asserted  the  principle  of 
defining  a  thing  by  its  more  perfect  end,  rather  than 
by  its  imperfect  beginnings,  by  its  drift  and  movement 
towards  fuller  meanings  rather  than  by  its  undeveloped 
earlier  poverty  of  meaning.  What  religion  meant  and 
was  on  the  way  to  express  by  its  sacrifices  was  the 
denial  of  some  things  and  the  affirmation  of  others, 
the  ultimate  complete  death  of  some  things  and  so 
possible  complete  life  of  other  things,  in  the  subjects 
of  the  religion.  What  the  something  to  put  off,  to  die 
to,  and  the  something  to  be  put  on,  or  to  live  to,  were, 
was  matter  of  evolutional  realization  and  expression; 
and  God  and  man  alike  at  last  revealed  it  in  the 
death  and  resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ. 

The  supposed  difficulty  in  the  way  of  the  above 
manifestly  true  interpretation  lies  in  the  question  as  to 
who  is  the  maker  of  the  covenant  whose  death  is  of 
necessity  involved  in  it.  It  is  very  true  that  ordinarily 
the  making  or  giving  of  the  covenant  is  represented  not 
as  the  conjoint  act  of  the  two  parties  but  as  the  act  of 
one  alone,  namely  God.  God  alone,  then,  could  be  the 
maker  of  the  covenant;  and  the  declaration  that  the 


196        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

covenant  carries  with  it  the  death  of  him  that  made  it, 
that  it  is  not  of  force  while  he  that  made  it  liveth,  has 
been  made  in  some  way  to  refer  to  the  deep  and  mys- 
terious truth  of  the  death  of  God  for  the  sins  of  the 
world,  what  St.  Paul  means  when  he  speaks  of  the 
Church  of  God  which  He  purchased  with  His  blood. 
What  truth  there  is  in  those  deep  sayings  we  shall  be 
far  from  passing  over;  but  the  death  here  spoken  of  as 
necessarily  involved  in  the  covenant  with  God  is  the 
death  not  of  God  but  of  the  sinner.  That  the  sinner 
himself  could  not  die  to  himself  and  his  sin  but  for  the 
love  and  sympathy  and  fellowship  of  God  who  suffers 
and  dies  with  him  in  every  such  act  of  death,  who 
supremely  suffered  and  died  with  and  for  him  in  the 
absolute  act  of  human  redemption  or  death  to  sin,  we 
cannot  make  too  much  of.  But  we  have  to  remember 
that  the  necessity  and  propriety  of  the  death  to  sin  lay 
in  man  not  God,  and  that  God's  own  participation  in  it 
lay  in  the  act  and  fact  of  His  making  Himself  one  with 
us  in  it,  and  so  becoming  Himself  our  reconciliation, 
redemption,  resurrection,  and  eternal  life. 

We  have  now  to  prove  that  the  language  of  our 
Epistle  does  not  immediately  or  necessarily  mean  God 
as  the  maker  of  the  covenant,  whose  death  is  involved, 
but  the  sinner  who  enters  into  living  and  saving  cove- 
nant with  God.  If  we  will  turn  in  our  Septuagint 
version  to  the  Fiftieth  psalm  of  our  Psalter  (the  Forty- 
ninth  of  that),  we  shall  see  where  God  says,  Gather 
my  saints  together  unto  me;  those  that  have  made  a 
covenant  with  me  by  sacrifice.     Turning  to  the  refer- 


Blood  of  the  New  Covenant  197 

ences  in  your  Revised  version  of  this  passage,  you  will 
see  more  fully  than  I  have  been  able  to  indicate  how 
true  it  is  that  all  covenants  with  God  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment were  by  blood  or  by  sacrifice,  were  made,  as  it 
were,  over  dead  bodies.  In  the  passage  quoted  the 
makers  of  the  covenant  are  the  offerers  or  worshippers, 
the  sinners  whose  own  death  to  sin  is  expressed  by 
the  blood  or  death  of  the  offerings.  The  Greek  terms 
in  the  psalm  and  in  the  Epistle  are  practically 
identical. 

Not  only  is  our  interpretation  required  by  the  entire 
context  of  our  Epistle  and  of  the  Scriptures  in  general, 
but  it  alone  brings  the  point  of  view  of  the  Author  into 
perfect  harmony  with  those  of  all  the  other  New  Testa- 
ment interpreters  of  the  Gospel.  According  to  St. 
Paul,  only  he  who  has  died  is  justified  or  freed  from 
sin.  Christ's  death  was  the  death  to  sin  and  the  new 
life  to  God.  We  shall  share  it  with  Him;  only  as  we 
have  ourselves  suffered  and  died  with  Him  shall  we 
rise  from  the  dead  and  live  with  Him.  That  shall  be 
consummated  and  completed  only  when  we  have  died 
in  the  body  too  and  lived  again;  but  even  now  we  may 
realize  it  in  its  completeness  in  faith  if  not  yet  in  fact, 
we  may  account  ourselves  already  as  dead  indeed  unto 
sin  and  alive  unto  God  through  Jesus  Christ  our  Lord. 
And  again  he  says,  that  we  have  been  released  or 
discharged  from  the  law,  from  all  the  conditions  of  the 
former  covenant,  from  its  weaknesses,  convictions, 
guilt,  and  penalties,  —  how  ?  Why,  by  the  fact  of 
having  in  Christ  died  in  that  wherein  we  were  subject 


198        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

to  it,  that  is,  in  the  flesh  or  in  ourselves;  so  that  we 
serve  now  in  newness  of  the  spirit,  and  not  in  oldness 
of  the  letter. 

So  St.  Peter  too  describes  our  Lord  as  having 
brought  us  to  God,  brought  God  into  us  and  us 
into  God,  by  His  having  died,  or  been  put  to  death 
in  the  flesh  and  raised  or  made  alive  in  the  spirit. 
And  upon  that  he  exhorts  us  as  follows,  Forasmuch 
then  as  Christ  suffered,  or  died,  in  the  flesh,  arm  ye 
yourselves  also  with  the  same  mind:  for  he  that  hath 
suffered  in  the  flesh  hath  ceased  from  sin;  that  ye  no 
longer  should  live  in  the  flesh  to  the  lusts  of  men,  but 
to  the  will  of  God. 

And  St.  John  not  only  tells  us  of  the  blood  of  Jesus 
as  cleansing  us  from  all  sin,  and  speaks  of  Himself 
as  being  our  propitiation  or  at-one-ment  with  God  as 
regards  sin,  but  describes  Him,  as  we  have  quoted, 
as  having  been  manifested  to  take  away  sin,  as  having 
done  so  in  Himself  in  whom  is  no  sin,  and  as  doing 
so  in  us  in  whom  in  Him  there  is  no  sin.  Just  as  St. 
Paul  again  had  said,  that  God  sending  His  own  Son 
in  the  likeness  of  the  flesh  of  sin  had  condemned  and 
abolished  sin  in  the  flesh  in  His  person,  so  that  the 
righteousness  of  the  law  might  be  fulfilled  in  us  who 
now,  by  His  death  and  life,  live  and  walk  no  longer 
in  the  flesh  but  in  the  spirit.  All  these  quota- 
tions show  that  there  is  a  common  mind  in  all  the 
interpreters  of  the  Gospel  in  the  New  Testament  as  to 
the  necessity  and  the  meaning  of  the  death  or  blood  of 
Christ,  and  that  the  aim  of  our  Epistle  is  to  justify  and 


Blood  oj  the  New  Covenant         199 

illustrate  that  meaning  out  of  the  entire  preparatory 
teaching  of  the  old  Testament. 

To  return  to  the  words  of  the  Epistle,  It  was  neces- 
sary, therefore,  that  the  copies  of  the  things  in  the 
heavens  should  be  cleansed  with  these;  but  the  heavenly 
things  themselves  with  better  sacrifices  than  these. 
For  Christ  entered  not  into  a  holy  place  made  with 
hands,  like  in  pattern  to  the  true;  but  into  heaven  itself, 
now  to  appear  before  the  face  of  God  for  us:  nor  yet 
that  He  should  offer  Himself  often;  —  but  now  once  at 
the  end  of  the  ages  hath  He  been  manifested  to  put 
away  sin  by  the  sacrifice  of  Himself.  And  inasmuch 
as  it  is  appointed  unto  men  once  to  die,  and  after  this 
cometh  judgment;  so  Christ  also,  having  been  once 
offered  to  bear  the  sins  of  many,  shall  appear  a  second 
time,  apart  from  sin,  to  them  that  wait  for  Him  unto 
salvation. 

These  latter  words  go  a  little  more  into  detail  at 
least  as  regards  the  imagery  of  the  act  of  sacrifice, 
which  we  might  describe  as  the  distinction  between 
the  prosphora  and  the  anaphora.  The  former  is  simply 
the  direct  offering  to  God.  As  applied  to  our  Lord  it 
means  the  act  of  giving  Himself  to  God,  the  complete 
devotion  and  surrender  of  His  life,  as  represented  by 
the  offering  up  of  the  blood.  The  thing  beneath  the 
figure  is  the  completeness  of  our  Lord's  sinlessness  or 
holiness,  the  perfection  of  His  obedience  or  righteous- 
ness, the  victory  of  His  life  to  God  through  death  to 
sin;  all  which  was  expressed  in  the  act  of  His,  through 
the  eternal  Spirit,  offering  Himself  without  spot  to  God. 


200        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

This  was  the  prosphora,  but  the  anaphora  car- 
ried some  further  details.  Literally  it  was  the  taking 
up  of  the  offering  or  the  victim  and  laying  it  upon  the 
altar.  Applied  to  our  Lord  there  was  the  figure  of 
His  taking  something  upon  Himself,  lifting  it  up  to  the 
altar  of  His  cross  and  nailing  it  there  to  die.  Some- 
times that  something  is  expressed  simply  as  our  sins, 
sometimes  as  the  whole  body  of  the  flesh,  sometimes  as 
our  entire  selves  in  the  flesh,  apart  from  God  and  sub- 
ject to  the  law  of  sin  and  death.  It  is  difficult  to  say 
just  how  and  how  far  our  Lord  is  described,  in  taking 
us  upon  Himself,  as  having  taken  not  only  our  nature, 
our  life,  and  all  our  natural  conditions,  but  also  our 
sins.  The  answer  is  perhaps  best  reached  by  asking 
ourselves  what  it  was  that  died  in  Him,  or  to  what  it 
was  that  He  Himself  died.  Assuredly  through  all  His 
life,  and  unto  death,  our  Lord  resisted,  denied,  morti- 
fied, crucified  something.  And  what  He  so  denied, 
annulled,  and  abolished,  He  was  in  that  relation  to, 
which  not  only  enabled  but  demanded  and  necessi- 
tated His  denial,  to  the  limit  of  its  abolishing  and  His 
own  dying  to  it. 

The  fact  is,  holiness  for  us  can  have  no  other  mean- 
ing and  can  come  by  no  other  process  than  the  having 
to  meet  sin  in  our  environment  and  in  ourselves  and 
having  to  overcome  it.  I  do  not  mean  that  the  sin 
has  necessarily  to  be  in  ourselves,  but  it  has  neces- 
sarily to  be  met  in  ourselves,  as  much  in  order  to  its 
not  being  as  to  its  being  there.  Jesus  was  humanly 
without  sin  only  because  He  met  and  overcame  and 


Blood  of  the  New  Covenant         201 

abolished  sin  in  Himself.  His  very  having  to  overcome 
it,  or  having  it  to  overcome,  presupposed  a  relation  to 
it  on  our  behalf  which  is  not  inaptly  expressed  by  His 
having  taken  our  sin,  having  been  made  sin  for  us, 
having  come  in  the  likeness  of  the  flesh  of  sin.  If  in 
our  behalf  He  took  our  sin,  He  took  it  only  to  take  it 
away;  He  took  it  not  to  be  sinful  with  it,  but  to  be 
sinless  against  it,  by  condemning  and  abolishing  it,  to 
put  it  to  death  in  Himself  by  Himself  dying  to  it. 

I  do  not  know  how  better  to  express  the  truth  of  the 
matter  than  to  say,  in  what  seems  to  me  to  be  the  ex- 
plicit teaching  of  our  Epistle,  and  of  the  New  Testament 
generally,  that  our  Lord's  whole  relation  to  sin  in  our 
behalf  was  identical  with  our  own  up  to  the  point  of  His 
unique  and  exceptional  personal  action  with  reference 
to  it.  Left  to  our  nature  and  ourselves  it  overcomes 
and  slays  all  us;  through  God  in  Him  He  over- 
came and  slew  it.  He  did  it  not  by  His  own  will  and 
power  as  man,  but  as  man  through  an  absolute  depen- 
dence upon  God.  And  He  made  both  the  omnipotent 
grace  of  God  upon  which  He  depended,  and  His  own 
absolute  dependence  upon  it,  His  perfect  faith,  available 
for  us  in  our  salvation.  He  re-enacts  in  us  the  victory 
over  sin  and  death  which  was  first  enacted  in  Himself. 

Inasmuch  as  it  is  appointed  unto  men  once  to  die, 
and  after  this  cometh  judgment;  so  Christ  also,  having 
been  once  offered,  or  offered  Himself,  to  bear  the  sins 
of  many  —  to  take  upon  Himself  their  sins,  their  sinful 
natures,  their  sinful  selves,  and  lift  and  nail  them  to 
His  cross  and  leave  them  there  forever  crucified,  dead, 


202        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

and  buried,  —  having  done  this,  He  shall  appear  a 
second  time,  apart  from  sin,  to  them  that  wait  for  Him, 
unto  salvation.  The  vision  and  prophecy  is  of  re- 
deemed humanity,  first  in  Jesus  Christ  and  then  in 
itself,  dead  through  His  cross  to  sin,  to  the  weak  and 
sinning  flesh,  to  its  sinful  self,  and  alive  forevermore  to 
God  and  holiness  and  the  life  indeed. 

There  is  one  other  distinction  it  may  be  proper  and 
profitable  to  touch  upon.  The  sufferings  and  death  of 
Christ  are  described  sometimes  as  passive,  sometimes  as 
active.  It  is  a  passive  death  for  sin  of  all  that  ought  to 
die  in  us ;  it  is  an  active  death  from  sin  of  all  that  ought 
to  live  in  us,  and  that  can  live  only  in  and  through  the 
death  of  all  that  ought  to  die.  Our  old  man  was 
crucified  with  Him,  that  the  body  of  sin  might  be  done 
away,  that  so  we  should  no  longer  be  in  bondage  to 
sin;  we  died  in  that  wherein  we  were  under  the  law 
and  were  subject  to  sin  and  death;  that  is  a  passive 
death,  the  death  of  all  the  self  in  us  that  needs  to  die 
either  as  sin  in  itself  or  as  the  condition  and  cause  in 
us  of  weakness  and  sin.  "The  death  that  He  died  He 
died  unto  sin  once;  Even  so  reckon  ye  also  yourselves 
to  be  dead  unto  sin,  but  alive  unto  God  in  Christ 
Jesus";  that  is  an  active  death,  a  death  which  is  the 
highest  activity  and  the  most  living  life  of  our  most 
real  selves.  The  issue  between  the  two  men,  the  two 
possible  selves  in  us,  is  the  one  question  of  our  lives 
and  destinies;  only  one  can  survive  and  endure,  and 
it  can  survive  only  through  the  death  of  the  other. 

The  Apostle  continues  and  somewhat  repeats  this 


Blood  of  the  New  Covenant  203 

important  part  of  his  argument,  with  new  or  additional 
touches  which  we  may  not  pass  over.  The  law,  he 
resumes,  having  a  shadow  of  the  good  things  to  come, 
not  the  very  image  of  the  things,  they  can  never  with 
the  same  sacrifices  year  by  year,  which  they  offer 
continually,  make  perfect  them  that  draw  nigh.  Else 
would  they  not  have  ceased  to  be  offered,  because  the 
worshippers,  having  been  once  cleansed,  would  have 
had  no  more  conscience  of  sins.  But  in  those  sacrifices 
there  is  a  remembrance  made  of  sins  year  by  year. 
For  it  is  impossible  that  the  blood  of  bulls  and  goats 
should  take  away  sins. 

Then  begins  the  final  stripping  off  of  figures  and 
imagery,  and  the  translation  of  the  facts  into  the  lan- 
guage of  plain  spiritual  experience:  Wherefore  when 
He  cometh  into  the  world,  He  saith,  Sacrifice  and 
offering  Thou  wouldest  not,  but  a  body  didst  Thou 
prepare  for  me;  in  whole  burnt  offerings  and  sacri- 
fices for  sin  Thou  hadst  no  pleasure:  Then  said  I, 
Lo,  I  am  come  (in  the  roll  of  the  book  it  is  written 
of  me)  to  do  Thy  will,  O  God.  The  sacrifices  of  the 
law  arc  all  brought  into  contrast  with  the  Lo,  I  come 
to  do  Thy  will,  O  God.  He  taketh  away  the  first,  that 
He  may  establish  the  second.  By  which  will  we  have 
been  sanctified  through  the  offering  of  the  body  of 
Jesus  Christ  once  for  all.  And  every  priest  standeth 
day  by  day  ministering  and  offering  oftentimes  the  same 
sacrifices,  the  which  can  never  take  away  sins :  but  He, 
when  He  had  offered  one  sacrifice  for  sins  for  ever,  sat 
down    on    the   right   hand    of   God;   from    henceforth 


204        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

expecting  till  His  enemies  be  made  the  footstool  of  His 
feet.  For  by  one  offering  He  hath  perfected  for  ever 
them  that  are  sanctified.  A  body  didst  Thou  prepare 
me;  Lo,  I  am  come  to  do  Thy  will,  O  God;  By  the 
which  will  we  have  been  sanctified :  in  these  three 
statements  we  have  the  enduring  facts  of  our  redemption 
through  Christ. 

In  The  body  Thou  hast  prepared  me  the  Apostle 
means  to  express  the  entire  truth  and  instrumentality 
of  the  Incarnation.  It  includes  both  the  natural  body 
of  our  Lord's  own  human  organism  and  constitution 
on  earth,  the  instrument  of  His  divine  work  in  and  for 
humanity,  and  the  larger  and  all-inclusive  mystical 
body,  the  Church,  the  whole  body  of  the  humanity 
redeemed  in  Him  as  its  head.  Our  Lord's  whole  func- 
tion in  creation,  in  creation  both  natural  and  spiritual, 
in  the  world  and  in  the  Church,  is  regarded  as  prede- 
termined and  prepared  from  the  beginning.  The 
natural  exists  but  for  the  spiritual,  as  in  the  individual 
man  the  body  is  but  the  organ  of  the  soul,  matter  is 
only  the  instrument  of  spirit,  all  natural  means  are  for 
spiritual  ends. 

All  creation  is  God's  predestined  tabernacle  or 
temple,  the  body  or  organ  of  His  manifold  life  and 
activities.  If  as  world  it  is  the  instrument  and  scene 
of  what  we  might  call  His  more  physical  powers 
and  mechanical  operations,  and  natural  presence;  as 
Church,  too,  it  is  to  be  the  scene  and  sphere  of  His 
more  personal  presence  and  spiritual  operations  and 
relations.     In  Adam,  or  in  the  highest  reach  and  attain- 


Blood  of  the  New  Covenant         205 

ment  of  man  as  product  of  nature,  we  see  God  still 
only  as  immanent  creative  wisdom,  power,  unity,  con- 
stancy, law;  in  Christ  we  see  Him  as  no  longer  in  mere 
natural  operation  or  mechanical  sequence,  but,  as  we 
may  say,  in  Himself,  in  personal  presence,  in  spiritual 
quality,  character,  and  action.  The  relation  of  God 
and  man  in  Adam  is  an  immanental  one,  with  a  growing 
instinct  toward,  a  latent  developing  potentiality  of 
personal  relationship,  that  is  to  say,  of  objective, 
transcendental  interrelation. 

The  end  of  all  natural  religions  is  the  evolution  of 
this  inherent  potentiality  or  natural  capacity  for  real 
or  personal  relationship  with  God.  What  Christianity 
sees  and  accepts  in  Christ  is  not  another  and  the  high- 
est hitherto  self-reaching  of  humanity  toward  God,  but 
the  answer  of  God  Himself  to  that  human  lono-injc  and 
expectation,  God's  actual  supply  in  the  fulness  of  the 
time,  and  man's  complete  satisfaction  of  his  most  spirit- 
ual want.  The  figure  of  the  tabernacle  or  the  temple 
all  through  the  process  of  creation  is  not  an  inapt  one; 
its  consummate  form  in  Jesus  Christ,  as  God's  final  and 
highest  self-realization  and  expression  —  we  might  say 
increation  and  incarnation  —  of  Himself  in  His  works, 
is  just  that  than  which,  once  we  have  apprehended  it,  it 
is  as  impossible  to  conceive  of  any  other,  as  it  is  not 
to  conceive  of  it  as  the  only,  end  and  destination  of  the 
universe.  A  body  indeed  had  God  prepared  for  Him 
who  was  to  embody  God  in  all  things,  who  was  to  be 
God  Himself  in  all  things,  in  whom  God  was  to  come 
supremely  to  Himself  in  all  things.     For  in  Him  love 


206        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

was  to  fulfil  itself  in  an  act  which  was  to  be  not  only 
God's  absolute  gift  of  Himself  to  the  world,  but  no  less, 
by  His  grace  in  it,  the  world's  supreme  gift  of  itself  to 
God. 

Lo,  I  am  come  to  do  Thy  will,  O  God.  No  one  can 
read  the  Gospels  in  earnest  without  perceiving  the  very 
definite  conception  which  our  Lord  shows  all  the  way 
through  of  a  will  of  God  which  He  was  come  into  the 
world  to  accomplish,  and  the  very  tremendous  respon- 
sibility and  importance  which  He  attaches  to  the 
accomplishing  of  that  will.  The  will  of  God  which  it 
was  His  meat  and  drink  to  do,  in  doing  which  He 
surrendered  all  will  of  His  own  in  that  only  true  sacrifice 
of  making  God's  will  all  His  own,  glad  thus  to  drink 
the  bitter  cup  He  drank,  and  to  be  baptized  with  the 
baptism  of  blood  He  was  baptized  withal;  that  will  of 
God  was  with  Him  no  vague  and  general  passive 
acquiescence  in,  or  discharge  of,  God's  will;  it  was  a 
definite  sense  of  something  supreme  and  final  to  be 
done  in  Him  and  by  Him  for  man,  for  the  world,  for 
God.  How  better  could  that  something  be  either  con- 
ceived, executed,  or  expressed,  than  in  the  act  of  His 
life  by  which  God,  the  v,  _>rld,  and  man  were  made  one 
in  a  real  and  an  eternal  reconciliation,  all  sin,  separa- 
tion, and  discord  abolished,  all  evil  annulled  in  good, 
all  death  swallowed  up  in  life? 

By  which  will  w  have  been  sanctified  by  the  offering 
of  the  body  of  Jesus  Christ  once  for  all.  The  body  of 
Jesus  Christ  Himself,  in  which  and  through  which  the 
offering  was  made  possible,  was,  we  have  seen,  the 


Blood  of  the  New  Covenant         207 

entire  constitution  of  Himself  in  our  humanity,  wherein 
and  whereby  He  could  perfectly  represent  us  in  all  our 
Godward  relation,  and  do  for  us  all  that  it  is  necessary 
for  us  to  do  for  ourselves,  and  be  in  ourselves,  for  life 
and  salvation.  The  greater  body  of  Jesus  Christ,  we 
have  seen  too,  is  the  body  of  us  all  in  Him,  the  body  in 
which  He  unites  Himself  with  us  in  and  through  our 
uniting  ourselves  with  Him,  and  by  His  Spirit  in  us 
works  and  becomes  in  us  all  that  He  wrought  and 
became  in  Himself.  This  is  that  perfecting  of  the 
saints  which  is  the  building  up  of  the  body  of  Christ, 
till  we  all  attain  unto  the  unity  of  the  faith,  and  of  the 
knowledge  of  the  Son  of  God,  unto  a  full-grown  man, 
unto  the  measure  of  the  stature  of  the  fulness  of  Christ. 
Our  Lord  having  Himself  wrought  our  redemption,  sits 
at  the  right  hand  of  God;  expecting  till  His  enemies  be 
made  His  footstool.  That  is  to  say,  from  thence  He 
carries  on  in  us  the  work  which  on  earth  He  acom- 
plished  in  Himself;  He  awaits  the  putting  His  enemies 
under  the  feet  of  His  Church,  as  already  of  Himself; 
the  end  and  consummation  shall  be  His  glorification  in 
His  saints,  the  redemption  of  the  body  of  His  Church. 
There  is  only  one  more  point  of  emphasis  to  com- 
plete the  picture;  and  that  is  the  strong  contrast  and 
at  the  same  time  conjunction  of  the  absolute  complete- 
ness of  our  work  of  sanctification  as  wrought  in  Christ 
and  its  incompleteness  as  working  in  ourselves.  By 
one  offering  He  hath  perfected  for  ever  them  that  are 
being  sanctified.  The  practical  application  of  this 
whole  Gospel  of  salvation,  which  will  be  the  subject 


208        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

of  our  next  chapter,  lies  in  the  right  apprehension 
and  use  of  that  contrast.  The  point  is,  that  our  sal- 
vation is  as  accomplished  and  complete  in  faith  as 
it  is  incomplete  and  to  be  accomplished  in  fact,  that 
is  to  say,  it  is  as  completed  in  Christ  as  it  is  incomplete 
and  to  be  completed  in  ourselves.  There  is  in  the 
action  of  divine  grace  operating  through  our  faith  such 
a  putting  of  God's  laws  in  our  hearts  and  writing  them 
upon  our  minds  as  constitutes  in  us  a  present  realiza- 
tion, assurance,  and  possession  of  future  perfection. 
Where  the  indissoluble  connection  of  ourselves  with 
Christ  is  truly  apprehended  and  appropriated,  there 
to  God  and  to  faith  nothing  stands  between.  Our 
sins  and  our  iniquities  have  no  more  existence  in  the 
mind  and  memory  of  Him  who  has  blotted  them  out 
for  ever.  We  are  already  where  Christ  is  and  what 
Christ  is. 


XI 

THE  FAITH  THAT  INHERITS  ETERNAL 
LIFE 

Hebrews  11-12 
The  remainder  of  our  Epistle  is  all  application  and 
illustration  of  the  fundamental  principles  we  have 
been  developing.  Let  us  sum  it  up,  to  begin  with, 
in  a  short  re-statement  of  the  argument  and  its  con- 
clusion: Having  therefore,  brethren,  boldness  to  enter 
into  the  holy  place  by  the  blood  of  Jesus,  by  the  way 
which  He  dedicated  for  us,  a  new  and  living  way, 
through  the  veil,  that  is  to  say,  His  flesh;  and  having 
a  great  priest  over  the  house  of  God;  let  us  draw  near 
with  a  true  heart  in  fulness  of  faith,  having  our  hearts 
sprinkled  from  an  evil  conscience,  and  our  body  washed 
with  pure  water:  let  us  hold  fast  the  confession  of  our 
hope  that  it  waver  not;  for  He  is  faithful  that  promised. 
The  general  theme  of  this  closing  section  of  our  sub- 
ject will  be  faith,  the  faith  which  can  now  come  to 
God  without  one  external  obstacle  or  one  internal 
qualm  between  itself  and  Him.  The  faith  to  which 
the  at-one-ment  is  not  complete,  the  redemption 
finished,  the  participation  of  eternal  life  perfect,  is  not 
a  faith  which  answers  wholly  to  God's  fulness  of  assur- 
ance to  it  in  Christ. 

15  209 


210        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

The  first  point  in  connection  with  this  faith  is  the 
objective  ground  of  its  absolute  certitude.  In  the 
divine  covenant  with  us  God's  part  is  as  fixed  and 
determined  as  Himself;  in  Him  there  can  be  no  vari- 
ableness nor  shadow  of  turning.  What  is  God's 
part?  It  is  all  that  has  been  actually  accomplished 
for  us  in  Christ.  Words  could  not  possibly  express 
more  exactly  and  more  utterly  than  is  done  in  this 
Epistle  the  completeness  and  the  eternal  irrevocable- 
ness  and  unchangeableness  of  God's  part  in  the  covenant 
of  grace.  The  whole  wealth  of  the  richest  of  languages 
is  at  the  disposal  of  Christianity  to  express  how  fully, 
in  the  eternal  and  consummated  will  of  God,  we  have 
been  and  are  sanctified  through  the  offering  of  the 
body  of  Jesus  Christ  once  for  all:  how  by  one  offering 
Jesus  Christ  has  perfected  for  ever  those  who,  already 
sanctified  in  Him  by  grace,  are  being  sanctified  in 
themselves  through  faith.  The  effort  and  object  of 
the  Apostle  now  is  to  make  us  see  and  feel  the  awful 
meaning  and  consequence  of  our  refusal  or  failure  to 
be  actually  what  God  has  already  completely  made 
us  virtually  or  potentially.  For  nothing  stands  be- 
tween us  and  all  that  He  is  but  our  acceptance  and 
appropriation.  How  would  I,  says  God,  and  ye  will 
not! 

Let  us  recall  how  heavily  this  thought  has  been 
on  the  mind  and  heart  of  the  Apostle  all  the  way 
through  his  argument:  How  shall  we  escape,  if  we 
neglect  so  great  salvation  ?  We  are  become  partakers 
of  Christ,  if  we  hold  fast  the  beginning  of  our  con- 


The  Faith  That  Inherits  Life        211 

fidence  stedfast  unto  the  end.  His  body  are  we, 
His  house,  God's  tabernacle  and  temple,  if  we  hold 
fast  our  boldness  and  the  glorying  of  our  hope  firm 
unto  the  end.  Remember  the  promised  Rest  of  God, 
and  those  who  entered  not  in  because  of  unbelief. 
Harden  not  your  heart  as  in  the  provocation.  Hav- 
ing a  great  high  priest,  let  us  hold  fast  our  confession. 
Think  of  the  fate  of  those  who  were  once  enlightened 
and  have  fallen  away,  seeing  they  crucify  the  Son  of 
God  afresh  and  put  Him  to  an  open  shame.  All  this 
gathering,  accumulated  sense  of  the  meaning  and  con- 
sequence of  the  rejection  of  Christ  pours  itself  out  as 
an  avalanche  at  the  close  of  his  argument:  If  we  sin 
wilfully  after  we  have  received  a  knowledge  of  the 
truth,  what  remaineth?  A  man  that  set  at  nought 
Moses'  law  died  without  compassion:  of  how  much 
sorer  punishment,  think  ye,  shall  he  be  judged  worthy 
who  hath  trodden  under  foot  the  Son  of  God,  and  hath 
counted  the  blood  of  the  covenant,  wherewith  he  was 
sanctified,  an  unholy  thing,  and  hath  done  despite 
unto  the  Spirit  of  grace  ?  For  we  know  Him  that  said, 
Vengeance  belongeth  unto  me,  I  will  recompense. 
And,  again,  The  Lord  shall  judge  His  people.  It  is 
a  fearful  thing  to  fall  into  the  hands  of  the  living 
God. 

We  may  say  what  we  please  of  the  anthropomorphism 
of  God's  wrath  or  vengeance;  translate  it  into  terms 
of  those  natural  consequences  of  our  sins,  negligences, 
and  neglects  with  which  we  ought  to  be  well  enough 
acquainted  as  facts  of  experience,  and  I  do  not  know 


212        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

that  there  would  be  much  gained  in  the  way  of  soften- 
ing or  tempering.  All  the  temperings  of  natural 
consequences  or  penalty  to  which  we  may  trust  must 
come  along  the  lines  of  grace.  There  is  all  the  temper- 
ing possible  provided  in  the  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ. 
To  refuse  or  neglect  that  is  to  cut  ourselves  off  from 
all  possibility  and  therefore  from  all  hope  of  mercy. 

I  have  spoken  of  the  objective  concrete  ground  of 
faith  in  God  and  hope  for  ourselves  which  we  have  in 
the  completeness  and  unchangeableness  of  what  God 
has  already  done  for  us  in  Christ.  The  essence  of 
that  we  have  seen,  and  see  here  again,  to  consist  in  the 
new  and  living  way  which  Jesus  has  opened  for  us 
through  His  flesh,  that  is  to  say,  through  His  death  in 
the  flesh  to  all  its  limitations,  and  His  life  in  the  spirit 
in  all  its  illimitations.  The  figure  comes  in  again  of 
a  rending  of  all  veil  of  separation  between  man  and 
God.  The  blood  is  coincident  with  that  rending:  it 
is  only  through  the  rent  veil,  it  is  only  with  blood,  that 
we  can  pass  from  ourselves  into  God.  Life  in  God 
cannot  be  accomplished  save  through  death  in  our- 
selves. Every  veil  between  us  and  God,  everything 
that  separates  between  us  and  God,  must  be  rent, 
though  the  rending  be  with  blood.  These  reiterated 
figures  and  truths  are  but  commonplaces  to  us  so  long 
as  we  deal  with  them  only  as  figures  or  even  only  as 
true  ideas.  It  is  only  as  accomplished  facts  for  us  and 
potential  accomplishable  facts  in  us  that  they  have  the 
interest  and  importance  attached  to  them  here.  We 
are  dealing  with  a  real,  absolute,  and  objectively  if  not 


The  Faith  That  Inherits  Life        213 

yet  for  us  subjectively  accomplished,  religion.  The 
Apostle's  words  are  to  him  counters  not  of  thought 
but  of  fact.  In  Jesus  Christ  all  is  rent  asunder  with 
blood  that  separates  between  us  and  God.  We  are 
at  one  with  God  and  free  from  sin  —  in  faith;  but  faith 
in  God  means  fact  in  us. 

We  might  here  illustrate  in  a  few  representative 
points  the  absolute  transition  accomplished  for  us  and 
to  be  accomplished  by  us  in  Christ,  and  that  in  terms 
of  our  own  spiritual  processes  and  laws  of  growth  and 
change.  I  recall  an  old  distinction  between  not  so 
much  two  forms  as  two  stages,  the  first  and  the  last, 
of  human  freedom.  Personality  begins  with  what  has 
been  called  formal  freedom,  the  power  and  opportunity 
and  necessity  of  moral  choice.  The  choice  and  de- 
cision between  good  and  bad,  right  and  wrong,  must  be 
our  own,  and  have  been  made  by  ourselves.  The 
possibility  of  either  must  have  at  some  time  been  ours. 
That  must  have  been  the  beginning  of  freedom;  what 
is  its  proper  end  ?  Acts  become  habits,  and  habits 
become  character,  and  character  when  made  becomes 
fixed,  indelible  destiny.  The  natural  end  of  formal 
freedom  is  fixity  of  character  and  destiny,  the  loss  of 
freedom  —  in  that  sense.  But  suppose  the  fixity  has 
been  on  the  right  side,  in  good;  as  one  becomes  more 
and  more  fixed  in  good,  the  limit  of  which  is  the  loss 
of  the  very  posse  peccare,  is  he  becoming  less  and  less 
free?  On  the  contrary  he  is  more  and  more  progress- 
ing in  real  freedom,  and  he  is  perfectly  free,  has  attained 
the  limit  of  real  freedom,  only  when  he  has  surrendered 


214        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

all  formal  freedom,  and  so  passed  beyond  the  reach 
and  possibility  of  anything  which  may  impair  the 
completeness  and  perfection  of  his  being  or  action. 
That  end  may  be  never  so  far  off  for  us,  but  though  it 
be  infinitely  far,  he  who  does  not  believe  in  it  and  aim 
at  it  as  the  end  does  not  know  truly  the  beginning  of 
the  life  of  God. 

Let  us  take  another  illustration.  All  philosophy  as 
well  as  all  religion  is  obliged  to  get  down  to  some 
ultimate  spiritual  and  moral  distinction  of  good  and 
bad,  virtue  and  vice,  or  sin  and  holiness.  Let  us 
take  the  last  mentioned,  and  at  once  we  recognize 
in  ourselves  a  mixed  attitude  towards  the  two  alter- 
natives. We  have,  however,  no  doubt  as  to  what  our 
attitude  ought  to  be  and  more  and  more  we  endeavour 
to  assume  it.  We  know  that  our  attitude  ought  to 
be  wholly  against  sin  and  wholly  for  holiness  and 
righteousness  and  life.  The  totality  of  the  disposition 
or  attitude  toward  sin  we  call  repentance,  and  of  that 
toward  holiness  and  God  we  call  faith.  Now  as  one 
truly  knows  more  and  more  of  the  real  attitudes 
toward  these  mutual  contradictories,  let  one  attempt  to 
set  a  limit  to  the  attitudes,  and  say  how  far  repentance 
shall  go  and  how  far  faith.  Will  it  be  possible  to  stop 
short  of  a  repentance  unto  the  death  of  sin,  or  of  faith 
unto  the  very  perfection  of  the  holiness  and  life  of 
God  ?  We  cannot  stop  half-way  on  the  way  to  God ;  we 
cannot  stop  short  of  the  absolute  religion.  From  the 
very  beginning  we  must  believe  in  and  mean  it  all, 
though  it  take  us  an  eternity  to  know  it  all  and  attain  it. 


The  Faith  That  Inherits  Life        215 

Let  us  take  yet  another  phase  of  the  matter.  God's 
religion  is  an  absolute  religion.  It  means  utter  one- 
ness with  Himself,  utter  freedom  from  sin,  utter  life 
out  of  death.  We  cannot  but  know  that  this  means 
the  rest  of  eternity  for  us,  and  how  much  of  experience 
between,  none  can  tell.  Now  however  long,  and  how- 
ever anything  else,  between  us  and  our  destiny,  God 
knows  that  the  power  in  us  to  attain  our  end  must 
come  through  our  own  faith  in  it  and  our  assurance 
of  it.  Man  can  himself  do  only  that  which  he  knows 
as  an  end  to  himself;  he  will  do  perfectly  for  himself 
only  that  which  he  has  not  only  a  perfect  knowledge  of, 
but  a  perfect  love  and  desire  for,  and  a  perfect  faith 
and  hope  in.  What  man  wants  for  his  perfect  salva- 
tion is  a  perfect  faith,  hope,  and  love  in  and  for  God 
as  His  perfect  salvation.  God  as  His  perfect  salvation 
can  only  mean  God  to  him  and  God  in  him  as  his  own 
perfect  holiness,  righteousness,  and  life.  And  that 
means  God's  absolute  truth  of  Him  and  us  in  Christ, 
and  Christ's  absolute  fulfilment  of  Him  and  us  by  the 
power  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  Now  when  we  begin  to  talk 
of  this  faith  in  God,  this  faith  in  His  love,  His  grace, 
His  fellowship  or  oneness  with  us,  how  far  shall  we  go 
or  where  shall  we  stop  ?  Was  God  in  Christ,  is  Christ 
in  us?  Is  He  in  us  for  anything  less  than  He  is  in 
Himself  or  means  for  us  ?  All  these  perfect  tenses  — 
do  they  not  mean  something,  and  ought  we  not  to  affirm 
their  meaning  to  its  very  limit.  Ought  we  not  to  say 
that  God  has  accomplished  our  salvation,  and  that  it 
is  accomplished  ?     Ought  we  not  to  speak  in  the  terms 


216        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

of  the  perfect  faith  of  St.  Paul,  of  the  Writer  of  our 
Epistle,  of  all  the  New  Testament  interpreters  of 
Christ  and  His  work,  and  say  that  we  are  dead,  and 
are  risen;  that  we  are  justified,  sanctified,  glorified; 
that  we  have  been  completed  and  perfected  in  Him 
who  is  to  us  from  God  our  own  holiness  and  righteous- 
ness and  life  ?  To  be  able  to  say  that  in  the  beginning 
in  faith  is  God's  method  of  imparting  to  us  the  ability 
to  say  it  in  the  end  in  fact.  When  the  faith  is  in 
God's  Word  and  Spirit,  truly  to  believe  is  in  reality 
to  be. 

That  Christianity  was  intended  in  the  beginning  to 
be  pitched  upon  this  highest  note  of  perfect  faith  is 
further  illustrated  by  the  language  that  follows.  We 
have  the  ever  opened  way  into  the  Holiest  place  and 
the  great  High  priest  over  the  house  of  God.  We 
may  say  that  our  Lord's  present  and  permanent 
function  there,  stript  of  imagery,  is  to  stand  to  God 
and  to  faith  for  God's  accomplished  part  in  the  econ- 
omy of  grace,  in  the  covenant  of  life,  and  for  man's, 
in  Him  accomplished,  in  us  accomplishing,  part  in  the 
same.  If  God's  grace  is  to  accomplish  itself  in  and 
through  our  faith,  then  the  object  of  our  faith  must 
be  ever  before  our  eyes  in  order  that  the  grace  of  it 
may  be  ever  in  our  hearts.  And  this  principle  deter- 
mines what  our  proper  act  of  worship  should  be,  as 
well  as  wherein  our  true  religion  consists.  Having  the 
way  forever  opened  and  the  High  Priest  ever  present, 
let  us,  the  Apostle  continues,  draw  near  with  a  true 
heart  in  fulness  of  faith,  having  our  hearts  sprinkled 


The  Faith  That  Inherits  Life        217 

from  an  evil  conscience,  and  our  body  washed  with 
pure  water. 

There  is  evidently  an  allusion  to  the  existent  and 
established  fact  of  an  outward  institution  of  Christian- 
ity and  a  sacramental  union  with  Christ.  The  Church 
is  the  true  continuation  of  Christ  and  the  proper  body 
of  His  incarnation.  As  the  Tabernacle  had  been,  so 
the  Church  was  sprinkled  with  the  blood  of  His 
perfect  sacrifice;  it  was  baptized  into  His  death  and 
raised  up  into  His  life.  The  sacramental  act  was  a 
word  of  God,  and  was  all  that  it  meant.  One  half  of 
modern  Christianity  can  no  longer  understand  what 
the  sacraments  were  to  the  Church  in  the  beginning; 
that  is  because  it  no  longer  understands  what  the 
Church  itself  was.  The  Church  as  the  body  of  Christ, 
the  temple  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  the  house  of  God  which 
we  are,  in  participation  with  Christ,  was  as  much  an 
objective  entity  and  reality  as  Christ  Himself  was  in 
His  human  actuality. 

The  Church  was  Christ  as  Christ  was  the  Church. 
The  Incarnation  was  in  humanity,  not  only  in  a  man. 
The  One  High  Priest,  Forerunner,  Firstborn,  Author 
and  Finisher  was  but  God's  promise,  fulfilment,  rev- 
elation of  all.  The  one  act  of  faith  was  to  see  one- 
self and  all  mankind  in  Christ.  The  language  of 
faith  was  to  predicate  Christ  of  oneself  as  of  all.  The 
sacraments  were  God's  creative  word  of  real  transac- 
tions, real  relations,  and  real  resulting  life.  One  was 
baptized  into  Christ's  death  and  life  and  into  no  mere 
picture  of  it.     One  ate  and  drank  the  life  of  Christ, 


218        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

and  no  mere  sign  of  it.  The  language  of  faith  was 
the  language  of  fact,  not  of  fiction;  of  realities,  not 
meanings.  To  the  man  who  so  believes,  what  he  be- 
lieves is,  provided  his  faith  rests  upon  a  real  word 
of  God.  God's  word  through  such  a  faith  makes 
what  it  says,  enables  and  produces  what  it  commands, 
fulfils  what  it  promises,  gives  and  is  all  that  it  means 
or  expresses. 

The  reason  and  excuse  for  the  modern  world's 
surrender  and  loss  of  so  much  of  the  language,  and 
along  with  it  the  reality,  of  faith  in  an  objective  real 
life  and  salvation  is  not  far  to  seek,  and  must  be  fully 
reckoned  with.  It  sprang  out  of  the  inevitable 
danger,  and  the  well-nigh  universal  result  and  fact 
of  a  practical  divorce  between  the  truths  of  an  ob- 
jective salvation  in  Christ  and  a  subjective  salvation 
in  ourselves.  Practically  the  value  of  the  death  for  us, 
all  but  obscured  the  necessity  of  the  death  in  us  and 
of  us.  The  substitution  of  the  righteousness  instead  of 
our  own,  displaced  the  need  of  the  righteousness  of 
our  own.  The  supreme  act  of  Christ  which  atoned, 
or  made  amends,  or  satisfied  the  requirements  of  jus- 
tice, for  all  we  had  done  amiss  or  left  undone,  was 
virtually  separated  from  that  same  act  as,  not  only  in 
Christ  but  in  us  too,  actually  abolishing  sin  or  separa- 
tion and  at-one-ing  us  with  God. 

There  is  a  truth  of  justification  and  a  truth  of 
sanctification  and  a  logical  and  practical  distinction 
to  be  made  between  the  two,  but  if  they  twain  are 
not  one  in  our  theology  and  in  our  experience,  neither 


The  Faith  That  Inherits  Life        219 

is  of  any  avail.  If  Christ's  righteousness  is  never 
our  righteousness  it  can  do  us  no  good;  if  Christ's 
death  is  not  actually  our  death  too  in  Him,  we  can 
know  nothing  of  Christ's  life  as  our  own.  But  the 
yet  greater  danger  and  evil  was,  not  alone  putting 
Christ  instead  of  us  in  place  of  making  Him  us,  but 
no  less  the  putting  the  Church  and  its  sacraments 
instead  of  Christ  and  us,  in  place  of  making  them  in 
reality  both  Christ  and  us. 

At  any  rate  Christianity  in  its  inception,  with  a  true 
eulabeia,  a  right  laying  hold  with  both  hands,  bids  us 
alike  to  hold  fast  the  objective,  the  absolute,  the 
eternally  accomplished  in  our  salvation,  the  whole 
truth  and  living  reality  of  Christ,  the  Church,  the  sac- 
raments, and  at  the  same  time  to  remember  that  one 
and  all  these  are  truths  for  us  only  as  they  are  and  are 
to  be  truths  in  us,  and  that  all  the  life  of  God  in  us  is 
nothing  except  as  it  is  all  our  own  freedom,  all  our 
own  selves,  all  our  own  activity  and  life  in  God. 

The  Apostle  passes  to  some  reminiscences  of  past 
experiences  in  common  in  Christianity,  which  had  done 
much,  evidently,  to  shake  the  faith  he  is  striving  to 
restore  and  confirm.  Call  to  remembrance,  he  says, 
the  former  days,  in  which,  after  ye  were  enlightened, 
ye  endured  a  great  conflict  of  sufferings;  partly,  being 
made  a  gazing  stock  both  by  reproachings  and  afflic- 
tions; and  partly  becoming  partakers  with  them  that 
were  so  used.  For  ye  both  suffered  in  sympathy  with 
those  that  were  in  bonds,  and  took  joyfully  the  spoiling 
of  your  possessions,  knowing  that  ye  yourselves  have  a 


220        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

better  possession  and  an  abiding  one.  Cast  not  away, 
therefore,  your  boldness,  which  hath  great  recompense 
of  reward.  For  ye  have  need  of  patience,  that,  having 
done  the  will  of  God,  ye  may  receive  the  promise.  It 
is  perfectly  evident  throughout  the  New  Testament  that 
all  the  absolute  and  unqualified  claims  and  promises  in 
Christ  hold  out  no  shadow  of  hope  of  any  miraculous 
or  preternatural  exemption  from  any  of  the  ills  or 
difficulties  or  trials  of  our  natural  existence.  On  the 
contrary,  all  the  helps,  comforts,  promises,  and 
blessings  of  grace  are  conditioned  upon  our  conduct 
under  the  circumstances  of  our  natural  life  as  it 
is.  The  Lord  our  salvation  took  life  as  He  found 
it,  and  was  saved  in  it  and  through  it  and  by  it,  and 
not  from  it. 

The  manifold  trials  and  troubles  of  life  have  to 
be  met  and  dealt  with  after  their  kind;  natural  things 
are  to  be  treated  with  natural  methods  and  means. 
The  salvation  of  the  Gospel  is  a  salvation  not 
in  kind,  or  in  the  same  kind,  but  in  another  kind. 
And  the  difference  in  kind,  which  we  are  now  to  de- 
velop at  some  length,  is  indicated  in  advance  in  the 
words  before  us.  Ye  took,  says  the  Apostle,  joyfully 
the  spoiling  of  your  possessions,  knowing  that  ye  your- 
selves have  a  better  possession  and  an  abiding  one. 
What  is  the  better  possession,  both  in  connection  and 
in  contrast  with  the  others?  There  are  three  ways  in 
which  we  may  translate  the  words :  Ye  yourselves  have 
a  better  possession;  which  may  mean,  Ye  have  in 
yourselves  a  better,  etc.;  or  (after  Bishop  Westcott), 


The  Faith  That  Inherits  Life        221 

Ye  had  your  own  selves  for  a  better  possession  and 
an  abiding  one. 

What  was  the  contrast  that  our  Lord  had  in  mind 
when  He  asked  what  it  would  profit  us  to  gain  the 
whole  world  and  lose  our  own  soul?  Or  again  when 
He  warns  His  disciples  that  they  shall  be  hated  of 
all  for  His  name,  but  that  nevertheless  they  should 
possess  their  souls  in  patience?  As  here,  too,  our 
Apostle  adds  the  warning,  Ye  have  need  of  patience, 
that,  having  done  the  will  of  God,  ye  may  receive  the 
promise.  The  promise  is  of  a  possession  of  another 
kind  from  any  which  the  world  can  either  give  or  take 
away.  It  is  something  wholly  within  ourselves  as  re- 
gards the  world,  and  yet  something  to  be  won  by  us 
only  in  reaction  and  contrast  with  the  world,  as  victory 
over  the  world.  I  have  elsewhere  brought  together 
the  classic  and  the  Christian  identical  conceptions,  first, 
that  happiness  is  a  pure  energy  of  the  soul,  or  of  the 
self,  existing  only  in  our  own  actions  and  reactions; 
and,  second,  that  the  kingdom  of  God  is  within  us,  that 
it  is  righteousness  and  peace  and  joy  in  the  Holy  Ghost. 
The  life  above  the  world  is  not  independent  of  the  life 
in  and  of  the  world,  in  so  far  as  it  can  be  known  and 
lived  only  in  reaction  and  contrast  with  it,  or  as  victory 
over   it. 

This  does  not  mean  that  the  spiritual  is  neces- 
sarily and  wholly  at  enmity  with  the  natural  as  such. 
The  natural  exists  for  the  reaction  with  and  victory 
over  it  of  the  spiritual,  and  is  best  fulfilled  in  being 
overcome  and   superseded.     We  do    not    hesitate    to 


222        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

see  that  the  past  best  serves  itself  and  us  in  propor- 
tion as  it  is  the  more  effectually  superseded  by  the 
present  and  the  future.  It  becomes  an  enemy  and  a 
tyrant  when  it  maintains  its  domination  and  stifles 
change  from  itself  and  progress  to  new  and  better  things. 
The  world  is  a  very  necessary  factor  in  human  life  and 
destiny,  but  it  is  here  to  be  overcome  and  transcended. 
The  Gospel  of  Jesus  Christ  is  a  Gospel  of  pure  trans- 
cendence, of  absolute  victory  over  the  world,  it  is  that 
better  and  enduring  possession  which  is  consistent  with, 
which  is  mainly  through,  the  loss  of  all  mere  earthly 
possession.  The  earth  and  all  that  is  in  it  exists  for 
the  lives,  the  souls,  the  selves  that  are  lived  on  it,  that 
are  made  by  it,  that  overcome,  surmount,  and  survive  it; 
surmount  and  survive  it  not  only  hereafter,  but  here 
and  now. 

That  having  done  the  will  of  God  ye  may  receive 
the  promise.  I  am  come,  said  our  Lord,  to  do  Thy 
will;  by  which  will  we  are  sanctified;  and  then,  That 
we  having  done  the  will  of  God  may  receive  the  promise. 
Observe  the  circle  of  cause  and  effect:  His  obedience  is 
not  to  be  instead  of  our  obedience,  but  is  to  be  our 
obedience.  Because  it  is  only  at  last  our  own  partici- 
pation in  the  divine  perfection  that  can  constitute  God's 
perfect  promise  and  gift  to  us  in  Jesus  Christ.  There 
is  just  one  thing  more  to  be  remembered  from  elsewhere, 
from  everywhere  else  in  the  Gospel,  lest  the  promise  be 
interpreted  as  only  the  saving,  the  perfecting  of  our- 
selves as  against  the  world.  We  are  to  remember  that 
we  overcome  the  world,  we  save  ourselves  by  as  well 


The  Faith  That  Inherits  Life        223 

as  from  the  world,  only  by,  in  the  right  sense,  loving 
the  world,  serving  and  giving  up  ourselves  for  it  to  the 
very  limit  of  life  and  extreme  of  death.  Ourselves  are 
indeed  our  highest  possible  promise  and  reward,  but 
ourselves  are  to  be  found  and  won  never  in  ourselves 
alone  but  only  in  the  infinite  not-ourselves  which  saves 
us  from  our  own  wretched  finitude  into  the  infinity  of 
God's  blessedness. 

Faithful  is  He  that  promised.  Yet  a  very  little  while, 
He  that  cometh  shall  come,  and  shall  not  tarry.  But 
my  righteous  one  shall  live  by  faith;  and  if  he  shrink 
back,  my  soul  hath  no  pleasure  in  him.  But  we  are 
not  of  them  that  shrink  back  unto  perdition,  but  of 
them  that  have  faith  unto  the  saving  of  the  soul.  All 
that  has  been  said  about  faith  is  but  an  introduction 
to  a  fuller  interpretation  and  illustration  of  its  meaning 
and  nature  and  function  as  the  divine  power  of  over- 
coming the  world  and  coming  to  God.  In  the  great 
panorama  of  faith  which  follows  we  are  to  expect  more 
of  poetic  description  than  of  scientific  analysis  and 
definition;  but  what  of  the  latter  too  is  involved  will 
merit  our  attention. 

There  is  first  the  general  truth  that  faith  is  the 
universal  function  and  exercise  of  religion,  or  of  the 
spiritual  nature  and  activity  of  man.  The  history 
of  religion  is  the  story  of  faith.  The  spiritual  heroes 
of  the  world  were  the  men  of  faith,  and  those  names 
stand  out  supreme  as  the  makers  of  the  history  and 
the  determiners  of  the  destiny  of  mankind,  who  in 
the  most  perfect  service  were  the  most  superior  to 


224        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

the  world,  and  lived  the  most  completely  the  life  that 
is  above  it. 

The  end  and  object  of  faith  is  specifically  life. 
It  is  an  organ  not  so  much  of  science  as  of  action. 
The  hero  of  faith  is  an  interpreter  of  life  and  destiny 
rather  than  of  nature  or  of  things.  All  but  one  of 
our  illustrations  will  be  found  to  be  exploits  and 
achievements  of  personal  action  and  activity.  But 
the  one  exception,  which  is  the  first  illustration  as 
well  as  in  itself  the  first  act  of  faith,  is  an  onto- 
logical  judgment,  an  insight  or  intuition  into  the 
very  root  and  being  of  things,  which  is  the  presuppo- 
sition and  condition  of  all  subsequent  faith:  By  faith 
we  understand  that  the  worlds  have  been  framed  by 
the  word  of  God,  so  that  what  is  seen  hath  not  been 
made  out  of  things  which  do  appear.  There  is  no 
more  exact  statement  than  these  words  in  their  original 
Greek  of  the  distinction  in  reality  between  the  visible 
or  the  phenomenal  and  the  noumenal  or  the  intuited. 

Beneath  or  behind  the  things  that  are  seen  and  are 
temporal  there  is  an  Eternal  Unseen.  What  is  it? 
What  is  the  real  substans  or  hypostasis  underneath  the 
being  and  order  of  the  universe  ?  The  immediate  and 
universal  answer  of  religion  is,  The  Word  of  God.  If 
that  answer  is  not  true,  there  is  no  object  or  function 
of  faith,  and  no  religion.  Suppose  it  to  be  true,  and 
that  not  only  is  the  Word  of  God  as  the  reality  of 
things  the  true  objective  matter  of  faith,  but  that  faith 
is  the  true  subjective  apprehension  and  possession  of 
that  objective  reality;  it  will  be  seen  at  once  that  there 


The  Faith  That  Inherits  Life        225 

are  two  questions  involved;  one  is  a  question  of  objective 
fact  or  reality,  the  other  is  one  of  subjective  intuition 
or  knowledge.  Which  is  prior  and  determines  the 
other;  does  the  fact  without  us  in  some  mysterious  way 
produce  the  intuition  of  it  within  us;  or  is  the  intuition 
itself  the  proper  prius  and  reality,  with  nothing  outside 
of  universal  mind  or  reason  to  have  determined  it? 
These  questions  of  realism  or  idealism  I  simply  refer 
to,  in  order  rather  to  illustrate  than  to  explain  or 
define  the  action  of  faith.  The  Apostle  calls  faith  the 
evidence  or  proof  of  things  unseen  and  the  substance 
or  the  assurance  of  things  hoped  for.  Now  with  regard 
to  one  at  least  of  these  terms  there  is  the  well-known 
ambiguity  of  meaning. 

Does  hypostasis  mean  the  objective  substance  or 
reality  of  things,  or  our  subjective  assurance  or 
knowledge  of  those  same  things;  is  it  a  term  of  on- 
tology or  of  epistemology  ?  I  ask  simply  to  bring 
out  this  fact,  that  whatever  in  science  or  in  phi- 
losophy, in  physics  or  in  metaphysics,  may  be  the 
true  relation  between  subject  and  object,  between 
knowledge  and  reality,  in  the  divine  and  absolute 
religion  of  Jesus  Christ  faith  and  fact  are  treated  as 
having  been  made  one,  as  being  now  identical.  Faith 
is  not  only  the  assurance  or  certainty  of  its  object;  it 
is  the  present  possession,  the  very  substance  and  reality 
of  its  object,  though  that  object  be  by  nature  and  of 
necessity  something  absent  and  future.  Faith  knows 
that  the  complex  and  mysterious  universe  is  the  divine 
expression  and  ordering  of  God;  faith  knows  that  the 
16 


226        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

Person  of  Jesus  Christ  is  God's  Word  of  truth  and 
life;  faith  knows  itself  completed  and  perfected  in  Him 
whom  it  recognizes  and  acknowledges  as  its  own  author 
and  finisher;  humanity  accepts  its  own  reason,  meaning 
and  destiny,  its  divine  predestination  and  inheritance, 
in  its  High  Priest  and  Forerunner  within  the  veil. 
Assurance  is  substance,  faith  is  fact,  promise  is  fulfil- 
ment, hope  is  possession  and  fruition,  —  all  not  so 
much  through  any  inexplicable  virtue  in  faith  itself, 
fide  sola,  as  because  faith  is  the  simple  laying  hold  of 
and  uniting  itself  with  that  Word  of  God  which  is  at 
once  the  substance  of  all  reality  and  the  light  of  all 
truth. 

However  faith  must,  as  we  have  seen,  have  a  philo- 
sophic or  ontological  basis  and  start,  its  sphere  is  in 
action  and  life,  and  there  we  shall  proceed  to  find  its 
true  expressions.  The  heroes  of  faith  have  been  the 
conquerors  of  the  world,  and  we  have  now  to  look  into 
the  meaning  and  method  of  that  conquest.  Let  us 
undertake  to  interpret  no  farther  than  to  see  in  the 
instances  given  types  and  expressions  of  different  phases 
and  actions  of  faith. 

Abel  is  the  first  recorded  type  of  those  who  make 
covenant  with  God  through  sacrifice,  and  between  him 
and  that  great  final  sacrificial  act  of  faith  which  abol- 
ished sin  and  established  the  kingdom  of  righteousness 
and  life  there  is  an  unbroken  line  of  witness  to  the 
truth  of  a  principle  which  is  the  wisdom  of  God  and 
the  hope  of  man.  This  principle,  without  going  into 
the  details  of  the  illustrations,  we  are  to  abstract  from 


The  Faith  That  Inherits  Life        227 

all  the  instances,  and  develop  to  its  final  supreme 
expression  in  Christianity.  That  which  is  common  to 
every  great  act  of  faith  is  that  it  lays  hold  upon  some 
word  of  God  and  holds  it  against  the  world;  through  it 
it  transcends  or  overcomes  the  world,  and  inherits  a 
promise  of  something  above  and  beyond  the  world. 
The  doer  of  such  an  act  makes  himself  greater  than 
the  world,  and  though  he  lose  it,  in  doing  so  he  finds, 
or  gains,  or  makes  himself. 

The  word  of  God  to  which  the  man  attaches  or  allies 
himself  comes  in  all  its  more  or  less  imperfect  instances 
in  a  variety  of  finite  forms.  One  foresees  some  judg- 
ment which  it  is  laid  upon  him  to  avert  or  else  to  sur- 
vive; or  some  great  hope  or  promise  which  through 
him  is  to  be  fulfilled;  or  some  great  redemption  which 
is  to  be  wrought;  or  some  truth  to  be  proclaimed, 
or  right  to  be  maintained.  And  he  does  it  for  the 
world  as  against  the  world;  and,  in  it  against  the 
world,  in  the  interest  of  the  world  against  itself,  in 
losing  himself  for  the  world,  he  is,  in  fact  though  not 
in  thought  or  intention,  saving  himself  both  by  and 
from  the  world.  Whereas  to  have  gone  with  the 
world,  against  itself,  would  have  been  to  be  lost  with 
it  and  by  it: 

So  Noah,  unable  to  avert  the  universal  judgment  he 
foresaw,  was  yet  enabled,  with  a  few.  to  survive  it 
and  be  the  beginning  of  a  new  life  and  (he  repeopling 
of  a  new  earth.  Thus  Abraham,  made  the  bearer  of 
a  promise  which  in  an  endless  future  was  to  be 
the  great  final  and  predestined  blessing  of  the  world, 


228       High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

forsook  all  for  that,  and  lived  for  it  as  the  father 
of  all  them  who  to  the  end  of  time  have  known  it  by 
faith,  and  shall  inherit  it  in  fact.  To  these  pioneers 
and  progenitors  of  faith  the  end  was  far  from  visible  to 
sight.  They  were  the  true  wise  men  who  saw  the  star 
in  the  east,  ages  before  it  came  and  stood  over  the 
place  where  the  Young  Child  was. 

So  Abraham,  being  called,  went  forth  not  knowing 
whither  he  went.  Being  come  to  the  place  which 
he  was  to  receive  for  an  inheritance,  he  became  a 
sojourner  in  the  land  promised  him,  as  in  a  land  not 
his  own,  dwelling  in  tents,  with  Isaac  and  Jacob, 
the  heirs  with  him  of  the  same  promise.  The  prom- 
ise through  him  to  the  world  depending  upon  an 
heir,  he  was  left  without  heir  until  beyond  the  time 
of  the  natural  possibility  of  his  begetting  or  Sarah's 
conceiving  a  son.  The  son  having  nevertheless  been 
given,  Abraham,  when  tried,  offered  up  Isaac:  yea 
he  that  had  gladly  received  the  promises  was  offering 
up  his  only  begotten  son;  even  he  to  whom  it  was  said, 
In  Isaac  shall  thy  seed  be  called:  accounting  that  God 
is  able  to  raise  up,  even  from  the  dead;  from  whence 
he  did  also  in  a  parable  receive  him  back.  Isaac  and 
Jacob  were  heirs  of  the  promise  and  continuers  of  the 
faith  of  Abraham.  Joseph,  at  the  summit  of  position 
and  power  in  Egypt,  made  mention  of  the  departure 
of  the  children  of  Israel,  and  gave  commandment 
concerning  his  bones.  Moses,  grown  up  in  the  King's 
house,  refused  to  be  called  the  son  of  Pharaoh's  daugh- 
ter; choosing  rather  to  be  evil  entreated  with  the  people 


The  Faith  That  Inherits  Life        229 

of  God,  than  to  enjoy  the  pleasures  of  sin  for  a  season, 
accounting  the  reproach  of  Christ  greater  riches  than 
the  treasures  of  Egypt.  By  faith  he  forsook  Egypt, 
not  fearing  the  wrath  of  the  king;  for  he  endured  as 
seeing  Him  who  is  invisible. 

In  these,  and  the  other  illustrations  of  faith,  the 
common,  the  permanent,  the  universal  elements  are 
the  following.  For  an  ideal  some  will  say,  or  for 
a  principle,  —  we  prefer  to  say,  in  obedience  to  a 
word  of  God,  a  word  of  truth  or  law  or  promise  — 
men  have  been  found  willing  and  able  to  give 
up  the  world  and  all  that  is  in  it.  But  not  only  so; 
there  was  something  yet  rarer  and  harder  that  went 
before:  they  were  able  to  apprehend  the  idea  as  an 
idea,  to  recognize  the  principle  as  a  principle,  to  hear 
and  accept  the  word  of  God  as  a  word  of  God,  against 
the  blindness  and  the  rejection  and  the  contradic- 
tion, as  well  as  to  hold  it,  to  live  by  it  and  die  for  it, 
against  all  the  excommunications  and  excisions  of  the 
world. 

Yet  more,  the  heroes  of  faith  did  not  go,  as  dumb 
driven  cattle,  to  renunciations  and  endurances  and 
deeds  and  achievements  that  were  against  their  will  or 
their  grain  or  even  their  pleasure.  They  found  in  the 
will  of  God,  when  hardest  and  most  painful,  the  very 
highest  recompense  and  reward;  they  accounted  the 
reproach  of  Christ  greater  riches  than  all  the  treasures 
of  the  world.  They  endured  as  seeing  Him  that  is 
invisible,  and  they  were  making  actual  experience  for 
themselves  of  the  fact  that  the  things  that  are  seen  are 


230        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

temporal  and  mixed,  but  the  things  that  are  not  seen 
are  eternal  and  pure. 

But  the  essential  feature  or  fact  in  all  this  long  story 
of  faith  is  not  simply  the  truth  that  it  is  faith  whose 
story  we  are  learning,  but  it  is  the  yet  deeper  truth  that 
it  is  the  trials  of  faith,  its  pains  and  disappointments 
and  failures  and  deaths,  that  make  faith,  and  are  the 
sources  of  its  chief  virtue  and  real  triumph.  Our 
Author  does  indeed  enumerate  a  glorious  list  of  earthly 
and  visible  successes  and  achievements  of  faith;  he  re- 
minds us  of  those  who  through  faith  subdued  kingdoms, 
wrought  righteousness,  obtained  promises,  stopped  the 
mouths  of  lions,  quenched  the  power  of  fire,  escaped 
the  edge  of  the  sword,  from  weakness  were  made  strong, 
waxed  mighty  in  war,  turned  to  flight  armies  of  aliens; 
women  received  their  dead  as  by  a  resurrection.  But, 
apart  from  the  fact  that  even  these  were  in  no  small 
part  spiritual  and  not  natural  or  temporal  victories,  or 
were  such  only  as  faith  and  not  flesh  would  value, 
there  is  another  side  of  the  picture  which  is  much  more 
in  keeping  with  the  real  nature  and  earthly  fortunes  of 
faith.  But,  continues  the  narrative,  on  the  other  hand, 
there  "were  others  who  were  tortured,  or  beaten  to 
death,  not  accepting  deliverance;  that  they  might  obtain 
a  better  resurrection;  and  others  had  trial  of  mockings 
and  scourgings,  yea,  moreover  of  bonds  and  imprison- 
ment: they  were  stoned,  they  were  sawn  asunder,  they 
were  tempted,  they  were  slain  with  the  sword:  they 
went  about  in  sheepskins,  in  goatskins;  being  destitute, 
afflicted,  evil  entreated  (of  whom  the  world  was  not 


The  Faith  Tlmt  Inherits  Life       231 

worthy),  wandering  in  deserts  and  mountains  and  caves, 
and  the  holes  of  the  earth.  And  these  all,  having  had 
witness  borne  to  them  through  their  faith,  received  not 
the  promise. 

Let  us  think  again  of  that  better  resurrection 
which  some  have  preferred  to  all  earthly  exemptions 
and  deliverances.  As  I  have  elsewhere  described  it, 
there  are  salvations  in  and  with  and  through,  or  by 
means  of,  the  very  extremest  trials  of  faith,  with  which 
are  not  to  be  compared  any  temporal  deliverances  from 
them.  There  is  a  grace  in  drinking  the  cup  to  its 
dregs  which  cannot  come  to  us  through  any  merciful 
passing  away  or  putting  aside  of  it.  There  is  a  regen- 
eration in  being  baptized  with  the  baptism  wherewith 
Christ  was  baptized,  which  nothing  short  of  the  actual 
dying  His  death  can  work  in  us.  There  is  a  grace  that 
is  sufficient  for  us,  a  power  made  perfect  in  our  weak- 
ness, which  we  could  not  know  to  the  uttermost  if  all 
thorns  were  extracted  from  our  flesh.  God  spared  not 
His  only  begotten,  His  one  perfect  Son.  He  was  per- 
fect only  through  being  perfected ;  and  He  was  perfected 
only  through  not  being  spared.  To  be  spared  the 
perfect  process  of  a  perfect  faith  is  to  be  left  short  of 
that  perfection  of  faith  which  is  its  own  only  fruition 
and  exceeding  great  reward. 

So  these  all  died  in  faith,  not  having  received  the 

.promises,  but  having  seen  and  greeted  them  from  afar, 

and  making  it  manifest  that  they  are  seeking  a  kingdom, 

a  country,  a  city,  not  of  this  world,  not  built  with  hands, 

eternal  in  the  heavens.     And  let  me  insist  again  that 


232        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

the  world  of  invisible  attainments  and  rewards  is  not 
one  of  space  or  time,  of  place  or  duration,  of  here  or 
elsewhere,  now  or  hereafter.  It  is  a  world  of  relations 
fulfilled,  self  or  selves  realized,  the  perfect  will  per- 
formed, the  perfect  purpose  and  end  accomplished. 
God  wants  not  ours  but  us;  not  all  that  we  have  accom- 
plished or  amassed  in  the  world,  but  what  through  all 
our  activities  in  and  with  the  world  we  have  done  for 
one  another  and  made  out  of  ourselves.  To  have 
gained  the  whole  world,  to  have  hindered  or  not  to 
have  helped  one  another,  and  to  have  lost  our  own 
souls,  ourselves,  —  what  will  it  profit  us  ?  There  is 
something,  an  attainment,  a  possession,  a  reward,  an 
eternal  life,  which  one  may  lay  hold  upon  and  hold 
fast  here,  and  which  no  one  truly  does  until  he  is  willing 
and  able  to  sacrifice  everything  else  for  it. 


XII 
CONCLUSION 

Hebrews  11-12 
And  now  we  come  to  the  question  raised  by  the  closing 
words  of  this  great  epic  of  faith.  And  these  all,  the 
world's  witnesses  and  martyrs  of  faith,  received  not 
the  promise,  God  having  provided  some  better  thing 
concerning  us,'  that  apart  from  us  they  should  not  be 
made  perfect.  I'he  world  since  the  Garden  of  Eden, 
since  the  birth  of  our  race,  has  been  the  subject  of 
promise.  Man  is  a  creature  of  hope,  of  expectation,  of 
aspirations  and  longings  always  far  transcending  any 
actual  satisfactions,  of  faiths  that  infinitely  overleap 
sight,  of  hopes  that  wonderfully  survive  death.  There 
is  an  object  and  an  end  of  all  these,  and  the  question  is, 
what  is  the  truth,  the  substance,  the  reality  of  human 
faith  and  hope  ?  We  call  it  faith,  because  we  are  con- 
vinced that  there  is  an  objective,  absolute,  and  infinite 
reality  corresponding  to  ourselves  and  answering  to 
our  want,  upon  which  we  are  dependent  for  our  being 
and  our  completeness.  We  call  it  hope,  because  our 
conviction  is  not  only  of  the  infinite  object  of  ourselves 
upon  which  we  depend,  but  of  our  own  finite  predesti- 
nation  to   that  object  and   ultimate   completion   and 

satisfaction  in  it. 

233 


234        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

The  question,  what  is  the  burden  and  content  of  Old 
Testament  promise,  is  practically  identical  with  that 
other,  what  is  the  divine  end  of  human  faith  and  hope  ? 
The  faith  of  the  Old  Testament  is  diffused  and  indefi- 
nite; it  rested  for  the  most  part  upon  temporal  objects 
and  ends,  and  when  these  were  recognized  as  being 
only  signs  and  pledges  of  things  less  immediate  and 
visible,  the  truer  and  remoter  remained  still  in  shadow, 
and  only  continued  to  lure  faith  yet  further  on  to  things 
yet  more  future  and  still  invisible.  Looking  back  from 
the  end  upon  the  long  process  of  the  origin  and  growth 
of  faith,  we  can  see  that  the  meaning  and  purpose  of 
God  was  definitely  at  work  long  before  the  end  was 
clearly  definable  by  man. 

The  interpretation  of  the  process  in  our  Epistle  is 
original  and  independent  of  that  of  St.  Paul,  and  even 
in  some  respects  in  contrast,  though  never  in  contradic- 
tion, with  it;  and  yet  at  the  close  it  falls  into  identity 
not  only  of  thought  but  of  language  with  it.  St.  Paul's 
end  of  human  action,  completion  and  perfection  of 
human  activity,  condition  and  hope  of  human  happi- 
ness or  blessedness,  is  expressed  in  the  word  righteous- 
ness. Of  course  that  is  the  Old  Testament  word  for 
right  relations  with  God,  and  Habakkuk's  famous 
phrase,  The  righteous  shall  live  by  faith,  may  have 
been  used  before  in  Rabbinic  teaching  to  express  the 
essence  of  the  divine  law;  but  here  the  Author  of  our 
Epistle,  either  from  or  in  common  with  St.  Paul, 
adopts  it  as  his  text  in  his  exposition  of  the  ultimate 
end  of  Old  Testament  law  and  promise.     Not  only 


Conclusion  235 

does  he  close  his  argument  and  begin  his  application 
with  the  direct  quotation,  My  righteous  one  shall  live 
by  faith,  but  he  describes  Abel  as  having,  through  the 
faith  of  his  more  excellent  sacrifice,  been  borne  witness 
to  that  he  was  righteous;  and  Noah  as  having,  in  his 
turn,  become  heir  of  the  righteousness  which  is  accord- 
ing to  faith. 

And  yet  the  righteousness  of  or  by  faith  is  not  here 
precisely  that  of  St.  Paul;  or  rather,  I  should  be  dis- 
posed to  say,  it  is  the  more  identical  with  it  because 
it  is  the  same  thing  looked  at  quite  differently,  or  from 
a  different  point  of  view.  Faith  here  is  regarded  as 
the  source  and  principle  of  an  actual  righteousness 
in  man.  These  exponents  of  faith  were  in  fact  right- 
eous, so  far  as  their  righteousness  went.  Faith  is 
righteousness;  not  only  the  condition  or  instrument 
of  it,  but  itself.  Faith  is  always  in  God,  and  God 
is  always  in  faith,  as  the  life  and  the  righteousness  of 
it  and  of  him  who  exercises  it.  Just  so  far  as  a  man 
believes,  God  is  in  him,  and  just  so  far  as  God  is  in 
him  he  is  righteous;  and  just  so  far  as  the  righteousness 
of  faith  and  of  God  really  exists,  it  manifests  itself  in 
the  spirit  and  in  acts  of  sacrifice.  Sacrifice  is  the  inevi- 
table expression  of  love  and  service,  and  these  three, 
love,  service,  sacrifice,  are  the  nature  of  God,  the  new 
creation  of  Christ,  the  promise  and  gift  of  the  eternal 
Spirit,  the  blessingness  and  the  blessedness  of  man. 
Consequently  our  Author,  looking  upon  righteousness 
more  as  an  infused  and  actual  quality  or  character,  a 
participation  in  the  divine  nature,  does  not  like  St. 


236        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

Paul,  or  later  interpreters  of  St.  Paul,  distinguish  it,  in 
the  sense  of  justification,  from  sanctification,  or  from 
real  redemption,  completion,  or  perfection.  All  these 
we  have  in  Christ,  as  accomplished  in  Him,  but  as  no 
less  real  however  infinitely  less  perfect  in  ourselves  too 
in  Him. 

St.  Paul,  I  contend,  is  not  at  variance  but  in  accord 
with  the  view  which  sees  in  the  righteousness  of  God 
something  actual  not  only  in  Him  or  in  Christ  but  in 
us  so  far  as  through  faith  we  have  appropriated  and 
made  it  our  own.  But,  wishing  to  comfort,  confirm, 
and  assure  the  weakest  and  furthest  off  as  well  as 
humble  the  strongest  and  the  nearest  in  this  infinite 
task  of  a  perfect  righteousness,  he  dwells  predominantly 
upon  the  side,  not  only  of  how  absolutely  our  righteous- 
ness is  of  God  and  not  of  ourselves,  but  how  absolutely, 
being  of  God,  it  is  assured  of  ourselves.  This,  says  he, 
is  the  cause  wherefore  righteousness  is  of  grace  through 
faith,  that  the  promise  may  be  sure  to  those  to  whom 
it  would  be  not  only  not  sure  but  impossible  if  it  were 
to  be  of  themselves.  Faith  is  our  acceptance  of  the 
certitude  of  God's  grace.  Just  because  our  righteous- 
ness is  God's  and  not  our  own,  therefore  it  is  to  be 
viewed  as  our  own  in  the  certainty  and  completeness 
of  God's  gift  of  it  in  Christ,  and  not  in  the  incomplete- 
ness and  uncertainty  of  our  reception  of  it  in  ourselves. 

In  reality,  however,  the  promise  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment and  the  gift  of  the  New  are  those  of  an  actual 
righteousness,  only  imputed  rather  than  imparted 
because  imputation  is  the  divine  method  of  impartation. 


Conclusion  237 

We  can  only  be  ever  righteous  in  act  and  fact  by  being 
first  so  in  idea,  in  sentiment  or  affection,  in  desire  and 
will,  in  a  word,  in  faith,  hope,  and  purpose.  Righteous- 
ness must  be  a  gift  certified  to  faith,  attainable  to  hope, 
to  be  accomplished  in  our  own  activity,  before  it  can 
come  as  a  realization  in  ourselves.  It  is  as  an  object 
of  faith  only  that  it  can  become  a  fact  of  possession. 
Now  what  the  actual  gift  of  the  New  Testament  adds 
to  the  growing  promise  of  the  Old,  which  was  as  a  light 
shining  more  and  more  unto  the  perfect  day,  was  as 
follows:  In  the  first  place  there  was  the  clear  and 
explicit  revelation  or  manifestation  of  what  was  the 
promise  of  the  Old  Testament.  The  Gospel  was  in 
every  sense  the  end  of  the  Law  for  righteousness. 
Righteousness  is  the  end  of  both  law  and  Gospel  be- 
cause it  is  the  end  of  man.  It  may  be  defined  as  right 
being  through  right  action,  right  action  through  right 
will  or  freedom,  right  willing  through  right  thinking 
and  right  feeling.  What  is  lacking  in  this  to  human 
completion  or  perfection  ?  As  to  its  process  or  mode 
of  becoming,  as  a  matter  of  fact  righteousness  originates 
only  over  against  and  in  conflict  with  its  opposite.  It 
exists  only  as  an  act  of  at-one-ment  with  God  —  mean- 
ing for  the  present  simply  all  that  God  is,  truth,  order 
or  beauty,  love  or  goodness,  etc.  —  redemption  from 
sin,  resurrection  from  death. 

Righteousness,  then,  is  the  full  and  accomplished 
end  of  self  or  of  ourselves,  and  it  is  none  the  less  so 
because  it  is  in  losing  or  transcending  ourselves,  in 
including   God    and    the    universe    in   ourselves,    that 


238        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

we  find  our  end.  It  is  true  that  it  is  in  proportion 
as  we  go  out  of  and  beyond  ourselves  in  the  purpose 
that  we  find  or  gain  ourselves  in  the  result,  but  it  is 
equally  true  that  we  really  give  ourselves  to  anything 
other  than  ourselves  only  when  we  take  that  other, 
though  it  be  God,  into  ourselves  and  make  it  our 
own.  We  magnify  ourselves  through  what  we  thus 
include  in  ourselves,  and  there  is  nothing  so  little 
as  the  selfishness  to  which  itself  is  all  itself.  We 
have  seen  how  a  man  may  gain  the  whole  world  and 
lose  himself,  his  soul;  and  we  have  seen  not  only  that 
a  man  may  lose  the  whole  world  and  still  find  himself, 
but,  more  than  that,  how  it  is  only  in  and  through  the 
losing  that  there  is  the  true  finding.  He  who  supremely 
found  Himself  and  found  us  all  is  He  who  the  most 
supremely  lost  in  order  to  find.  What  in  that  last 
moment  upon  the  cross,  when  even  the  Father  had 
withdrawn  Himself,  was  left  to  Jesus  but  the  one  thing 
which  He  was  least  seeking,  Himself,  His  divine- 
human  act  of  self-renunciation,  the  death  to  sin,  the 
life  to  God  which  perfected  Him  and  which  alone 
perfects  us  ? 

What  then,  first,  the  New  Testament  adds  to  the 
Old  is  the  clearer  manifestation  of  righteousness  as 
the  end  of  divine  promise,  the  matter  or  substance 
of  divine  fulfilment  and  gift,  because  the  only  true 
content  and  constituent  of  human  good,  perfection,  or 
blessedness.  But  Christ  is  more  than  a  revelation  to 
us,  of  God  and  ourselves,  or  our  perfect  relation.  He 
is  not  only  the  truth;  but  the  power,  of  God  and  our- 


Conclusion  239 

selves,  and  the  relation  between.  Faith  is  not  itself 
without  its  correlative  grace. 

I  have  repeatedly  called  attention  to  what  we  may 
call  the  reasonableness  and  naturalness  of  the  opera- 
tions of  grace;  how  it  appeals  to  and  makes  use  of 
and  fulfils  itself  through  all  the  familiar  elements 
and  faculties  of  our  nature,  intelligence,  affection, 
desire,  will,  and  activities,  so  that  the  actions  of  grace 
are  all  equally  the  actions  of  ourselves  acting  rationally 
and  naturally.  But,  for  all  that,  there  is  an  objective 
reality  in  grace  itself  and  apart  from  ourselves.  Jesus 
Christ  acted  the  most  rationally,  the  most  naturally, 
the  most  humanly  of  all  men  who  have  lived.  He 
was  the  very  divine  revelation  to  us  of  ourselves. 
But  there  was  something  in  the  human  acting  of  Jesus 
that  was  more  than  His  human  self.  There  was  not 
only  the  highest  faith  in  Him,  but  in  and  with  that 
faith  there  was  the  truest  presence  and  operation  of 
God,  there  was  the  most  real  activity  of  the  eternal 
Spirit,  whose  part  in  us  we  call  grace. 

When  we  say  that  in  Jesus  Christ  the  Life  was  mani- 
fested, we  mean  our  life,  such  as  it  is  only  there  revealed 
to  us  in  all  its  truth,  its  meaning,  its  possibilities,  its 
fulfilment  and  completeness.  No  one  will  say  that  it 
is  less  rational  or  natural  in  Him  than  in  us,  in  whom 
reason  is  mainly  emphasized  by  our  violations,  and 
nature  by  our  transgressions  of  it.  But  the  life  of 
Christ  is  a  perfect  human  because  it  is  a  perfectly 
divine  life.  And  it  was  divine  through  no  mere  divine 
ideal  of  His  own,   though  that   too,   but  through  an 


240        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

actual  presence  and  power  of  One  whom  He  as  care- 
fully distinguishes  from  Himself  as  He  identifies  with 
Himself.  He  seeks  not  Himself,  He  does  nothing  of 
Himself:  His  Father  works,  and  He  works,  the  same 
work;  He  and  His  Father  are  one.  In  a  word,  the 
more,  the  greater  or  better  thing,  which  was  the  mean- 
ing only  of  all  the  promise  of  the  Old  Testament,  and 
is  the  gift  or  actualized  reality  of  the  New,  is  God 
Himself  our  accomplished  righteousness  and  life  in 
Jesus  Christ,  in  whom  grace  bestows  and  faith  accepts 
and  receives  all  God's  part  in  us  as  finished  and  com- 
plete; but  finished  and  complete  not  as  a  substitute  for 
our  part,  but  as  the  all-sufficient  potency  and  assured 
certainty  of  our  part.  Jesus  Christ,  as  I  have  fre- 
quently said,  in  true  substance,  in  however  barbarous 
phrase,  is  to  us  both  gratia  gratians  and  gratia  gratiata, 
both  God  and  ourselves  in  our  salvation;  He  is  both 
the  divine  Word  conveying  righteousness  and  life  to 
us  and  the  divine  Spirit  receiving  and  assimilating 
righteousness  and  life  in  us. 

There  remains  a  chapter  of  yet  more  direct  and 
immediate  application  to  ourselves  of  the  story  and 
lesson  of  faith.  In  the  august  company  of  this  great 
cloud  of  its  witnesses  and  martyrs,  what  is  incumbent 
upon  us  ?  It  is  only  he  who  truly  sees  and  really  values 
the  end  of  life  as  faith  sees  and  values  it,  who  is  either 
willing  or  able  to  strip  himself  of  the  encumbrances  that 
impede,  and  above  all  to  rend  from  himself,  though  it 
be  with  blood,  the  encompassing  sin  that  neutralizes 
and  defeats  his  pursuit  of  it.     The  great  need   and 


Conclusion  241 

qualification  for  the  race,  next  after  the  faith  that  sees 
clearly  the  goal,  is  the  patience  or  endurance  to  undergo 
the  effort  of  the  way  and  to  survive  the  pain  of  the 
process.  This  we  are  to  do,  and  can  do,  only  by  look- 
ing away;  not  only  by  looking  away  from  all  impos- 
sibilities or  pains  of  the  world  or  the  flesh  to  those 
who  have  in  any  measure  overcome  the  world  and 
sacrificed  the  flesh,  but  by  looking  away  now  from  these 
imperfect  victors  too,  to  the  world  overcome  indeed, 
the  flesh  crucified,  victory  once  for  all  and  forever 
accomplished  for  us  and  assured  in  us.  The  interest 
in  this  comparison  and  contrast  lies  in  the  manner  in 
which  Jesus  is  first  identified  with  the  great  succession 
of  the  heroes  and  victors  of  faith;  and  then  is  dis- 
tinguished from  them  as  its  consummate  leader  and 
perfect  finisher  or  completer. 

First,  as  to  the  identification  of  our  Lord  with  our- 
selves as  the  representative  of  the  faith  which  relates 
us  to  God,  the  fact  may  be  recalled  that  when  our 
Lord  was  described  as,  in  the  days  of  His  flesh,  call- 
ing with  strong  crying  and  tears  upon  Him  that  was 
able  to  save  Him  from  death,  He  was  heard  from 
precisely  that  eulabeia  or  godly  fear  which  moved 
Noah  when,  warned  of  impending  judgment  to  pre- 
pare an  ark  to  the  saving  of  his  house.  It  would 
be  an  easy  matter  to  prove  how  uniformly  the  real 
victory  and  accomplishment  of  our  Lord's  life  is  ex- 
pressed in  terms  of  human  action  and  attainment,  as 
again,  for  example,  when  He  is  said  by  His  perfect 
offering  of  Himself  to  have  found  —  manifestly  for 
17 


242        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

Himself  first,  or  for  humanity  in  Himself  —  perfect 
redemption. 

But  then  on  the  other  hand  how  unique  a  place 
in  the  genesis  and  history  of  human  faith  does  Jesus 
occupy!  In  a  sense  He  is  its  originator  as  well  as  its 
consummator,  its  beginning  as  well  as  its  end.  He 
may  be  said  to  be  the  incarnation  of  an  eternal  prin- 
ciple of  faith,  the  author  of  all  the  faith  that  pre- 
ceded and  culminated  in  His  own,  as  well  as  of  all 
that  succeeded  and  was  but  the  extension  of  and  par- 
ticipation in  His  own.  We  are  saved  by  the  faith  of 
Jesus  in  a  double  way,  not  only  by  our  faith  in  Jesus 
but  by  the  faith  of  Jesus  in  us.  But  the  perfection  of 
human  faith  in  Jesus,  as  the  perfection  of  human  sal- 
vation, because  the  perfection  of  human  relation  to 
God,  and  therefore  the  perfection  of  human  holiness, 
righteousness,  and  life,  involves  something  more,  and 
something  perfectly  complementary.  The  perfect  sub- 
jective relation  and  correspondence  of  man  with  God 
is  nothing  but  empty  idea  or  sentiment,  if  it  cannot, 
and  does  not,  not  only  postulate  but  certify  and  verify 
the  more  than  equal  objective  relation  and  correspond- 
ence of  God  with  man.  Our  relation  is  a  personal 
one,  in  all  that  personal  relation  means  for  us;  His 
relation  cannot  be  anything  less,  and  must  include  all 
that  ours  is.  When  our  Lord,  speaking  humanly, 
said  of  the  Father,  and  the  things  of  God  and  the 
spirit,  I  speak  that  I  do  know,  and  testify  that  I  have 
seen,  there  must  be  some  warrant  in  our  own  imper- 
fect experience  of  faith  to  justify  our  acceptance  of 


Conclusion  243 

the  testimony  of  His  perfect  faith.  In  His  perfect 
light  let  us  see  the  light,  and  know  the  truth. 

The  evident  point  of  the  perfect  faith  of  Jesus 
centres  in  the  fact  of  His  perfect  patience  or  endurance. 
The  connection  is  better  traced  in  the  Greek,  the  same 
word  there  being  divided  into  the  two  words  by  us, 
patience  and  endurance.  With  endurance,  that  is  the 
emphatic  thought,  we  are  to  run  the  race;  looking  unto 
Jesus,  the  author  and  consummator  of  faith,  who  for 
the  joy  that  was  set  before  Him  endured  the  cross, 
despising  the  shame,  and  is  set  down  at  the  right  hand 
of  God.  And  then  begins  a  treatise  upon  the  mean- 
ing, the  uses,  the  divine  methods  and  rewards  of  that 
perfect  form  and  expression  of  faith,  perfect  patience 
or  endurance. 

A  practical  application  may,  as  it  does  here,  embody 
for  us  the  whole  and  exact  pith  and  point  of  a  long 
theoretical  construction.  The  patience  or  endurance, 
the  necessity  of  which  is  so  urged  as  the  conclusion  of 
the  whole  matter  upon  the  readers  of  this  Epistle,  is 
just  the  logical  or  natural  form  in  which  alone  it  is 
possible  for  a  true  faith  to  express  or  prove  itself. 
Could  there  be  faith  without  temptation,  or  could  an 
existing  faith  take  any  other  form  than  an  endurance 
and  survival  of  temptation  ?  St.  James  says,  Blessed 
is  the  man  that  endureth  temptation ;  for  when  he  hath 
been  approved,  he  shall  receive  the  crown  of  life.  St. 
Paul  says  that,  if  in  the  enjoyment  of  present  grace  we 
rejoice  in  the  hope  of  future  glory,  then  must  We  re- 
joice also  in  tribulations;  for  these  are  the  conditions 


244        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

and  instruments  of  all  the  glory  that  shall  be  revealed 
in  us.  Tribulation  worketh  patience  or  endurance, 
and  this  is  the  basis  or  ground  of  all  approval,  hope, 
or  attainment.  But  the  passage  before  us  gives  us 
the  most  scientific  as  well  as  practical  account  of  the 
grace  of  endurance.  After  speaking  of  the  need  and 
urging  the  practice  of  it  for  ourselves,  and  enforcing 
it  by  the  perfect  example  of  our  Lord,  it  states  definitely 
the  reason  and  end  of  endurance  —  Ye  endure  for 
chastening  or  discipline  —  and  then  dwells  upon  the 
discipline  of  life.  Let  us  consider  the  endurance  of 
Jesus,  and  its  lesson  for  ourselves. 

Who  for  the  joy  that  was  set  before  Him  endured 
the  cross  and  despised  the  shame ;  —  What  is  the 
sufficient  motive-power  of  a  perfect  endurance  ?  I 
agree  with  Aristotle,  as  against  Kant,  that  the  highest 
and  most  prevailing  motive  is  that  of  pleasure,  happi- 
ness, or  blessedness,  rather  than  that  of  mere  even 
duty  without  these.  Nothing  is  done  perfectly  until 
it  is  done  with  joy.  Pleasure  in  its  truest  sense  per- 
fects every  function.  God  is  not  law  or  duty,  but  love 
and  blessedness.  Without  love  enough  to  make  it 
joyous  there  is  no  perfect  service  nor  sacrifice.  The 
ancients  asked,  Is  courage  a  pleasure,  when  it  can 
exist  only  under  conditions  of  danger,  doubt,  and 
pain?  And  the  answer  was,  that  if  it  had  not  the 
inherent  pleasure  of  a  perfect  moral  function,  it  was 
not  the  genuine  virtue.  There  was  the  consummate 
joy  of  perfect  moral  and  spiritual  action,  attainment, 
life,  in  the  supremest  temptations  and  trials  of  Jesus 


Conclusion  245 

Christ.  We  must  not  exclude  the  personal  joy  of  His 
own  perfection  and  blessedness.  God  did  highly 
exalt  Him,  and  gave  Him  the  name  that  is  above  every 
name.  He  was  anointed  with  the  oil  of  gladness 
above  His  fellows.  And  it  was  through  the  virtue  of 
His  own  endurance;  He  was  perfected  not  merely  in- 
strumentally  by  the  things  He  suffered,  but  actually 
by  His  suffering,  His  bearing  or  enduring,  of  the  things. 
Nor  need  we  be  disturbed  at  the  thought  of  a  per- 
sonal joy  in  His  own  salvation  or  perfection.  Such 
joy,  in  proportion  as  it  is  true,  cannot  be  individual  or 
selfish.  The  joy  of  truth  cannot  lie  in  its  individual 
possession.  One  cannot  think  of  the  enthusiasm  of 
Newton's  discovery  as  a  possession  and  pleasure  con- 
fined to  himself.  What  was  it  for  him,  if  it  was  not  for 
the  world?  Truth,  beauty,  goodness  are  infinite  per- 
sonal possessions  too,  but  they  are  all  so  in  the  degree 
in  which  they  are  shared,  and  are  impossible  or  value- 
less as  only  one's  own.  There  is  a  marvellous  gain  in 
the  restoration  we  find  in  the  Revised  Version,  Con- 
sider Him  that  hath  endured  such  contradiction  or 
gainsaying  of  sinners,  not  against  Him,  but  against 
themselves.  The  holiness,  the  righteousness,  the  eter- 
nal life  which  our  Lord  had  achieved  was  His  own; 
but,  O,  to  Him  how  little  was  it,  how  much  was  it  not, 
His  own!  To  have  been  the  Truth,  and  have  the 
truth  that  He  was  denied;  to  have  created  righteous- 
ness, and  have  the  righteousness  rejected;  to  have 
been  all  Love  and  Goodness  realized  and  manifested, 
and  to  be  met  with  hate  and  requited  with  evil!     The 


246        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

contradiction,  the  gainsaying  of  sinners  against  them- 
selves, against  their  own  souls,  was  what  Jesus  had  to 
endure,  —  why  ?  Because  He  was  their  true  Self,  — 
all  the  reason  and  the  meaning  and  the  justification, 
all  the  truth  and  the  beauty  and  the  goodness  or  good 
of  themselves.  Himself  alone  was  not  the  true  self 
of  Jesus;  He  included  all  selves  in  Himself,  and  suffers, 
and  is  crucified  and  put  to  shame,  or  lives  anew,  rejoices, 
and  is  glorified  in  the  whole  body  and  in  every  member 
of  the  humanity  that  is  Himself  and  His  own. 

We  are  to  consider  Him  who  so  endured,  lest  we  wax 
weary  or  faint  in  our  souls.  His  endurance  must  be 
ours  too,  through  our  patient  endurance  of  the  same 
sufferings.  Grace  is  not  deliverance  from  the  necessity 
of  endurance,  it  is  the  power  of  joyous  endurance: 
My  brethren,  count  it  all  joy  when  ye  fall  into  divers 
temptations.  My  son,  regard  not  lightly  the  chasten- 
ing of  the  Lord,  nor  faint  when  thou  art  reproved  of 
Him;  for  whom  the  Lord  loveth  He  chasteneth,  and 
scourgeth  every  son  whom  He  receiveth.  It  is  for 
chastening  that  ye  endure;  God  dealeth  with  you  as 
with  sons :  for  what  son  is  there  whom  his  father  chas- 
teneth not?  Instead  of  chasten  let  us  say  disci- 
pline or  train.  The  good  and  ill  to  us  of  all  things 
are  not  in  the  things  but  in  us  and  in  what  we  are 
through  them.  The  so-called  evils  that  are  the  con- 
ditions and  the  means  of  all  that  is  great  and  good  and 
blessed  in  us,  how  then  can  they  be  called  evils  at  all  ? 
They  may  be  falsely  so  called,  or  they  may  in  them- 
selves be  really  so.     Sin  need  not  be  not-sin,  because 


Conclusion  247 

only  by  its  resisting  and  overcoming  can  holiness  exist 
for  us;  because,  therefore,  as  the  necessary  condition 
and  means  of  our  real  good,  it  becomes  or  is  made  as 
much  a  good  to  those  who  resist  and  overcome  as  it  is 
an  evil,  or  all  evil,  to  those  who  submit  and  are  enslaved 
by  it.  Indeed  holiness  is  only  holiness  if  sin  is  sin; 
there  is  no  spiritual  or  moral  good,  if  there  is  no  spiritual 
evil.  And  it  is  not  a  contradiction,  or  even  a  paradox, 
to  say  that  whatever  things  are  in  themselves,  to  them 
that  love  God,  knowing  what  God  is,  and  that  enter 
into  His  eternal  purpose,  all  things,  even  sins  and 
devils,  are  relative  goods,  being  made  to  work  together 
for  good  to  them. 

The  final  point  of  all  then  is,  that  as  God  spared  not 
His  own  Son;  abated  not  one  jot  or  tittle  of  all  that  He 
had  to  endure,  because  it  was  the  perfect  endurance 
that  perfectly  exalted  Him;  He  was  made  perfect,  not 
so  much  by  the  things  He  suffered,  as  by  the  act  of 
suffering  them,  by  the  perfect  victory  of  His  endurance ; 
so  no  son  can  be  spared  aught  of  all  that  he  is  called 
to  suffer  without  just  so  much  reduction  of  what  he  is 
called  to  receive.  The  call  to  endure  and  to  do  is  the 
call,  and  the  measure  of  the  call,  to  be;  and  our  only 
real  and  abiding  possession  and  enjoyment  is  in  what 
we  are.  We  had  the  fathers  of  our  flesh  to  chasten 
and  discipline  us,  and  we  gave  them  reverence;  shall 
we  not  much  rather  be  in  subjection  to  the  Father  of 
spirits  and  live?  For  they  verily,  for  a  few  days, 
chastened  us  as  seemed  good  to  them,  as  seemed  to 
them  good  for  us;  but  He  for  our  profit,  as  He  knows 


248        High  Priesthood  and  Sacrifice 

to  be  good  for  us,  that  we  may  be  partakers  of  His 
holiness.  That  is  the  end  of  it  all,  and  the  end  is  the 
meaning  and  the  reason  of  things.  We  become  our- 
selves through  relation,  for  or  against,  with  all  that  is 
not  ourselves,  through  interrelation  and  interaction 
with  all  that  we  call  our  environment,  through  con- 
junction with  the  good,  disjunction  from  the  bad. 
If  the  process  were  not  connected  with  and  dependent 
upon  all  effort,  all  pain,  all  purpose  and  perseverance 
and  endurance  on  our  part,  there  would  be  not  all  of 
us  in  it;  and  it  is  just  the  all  of  us  in  it  that  it  is  all  for. 
All  chastening,  the  Apostle  continues,  seemeth  for 
the  present  to  be  not  joyous,  but  grievous:  yet  after- 
ward it  yieldeth  peaceable  fruit  unto  them  that  have 
been  exercised  thereby,  even  the  fruit  of  righteousness. 
That  does  not  contradict  what  we  have  had  to  say  of 
the  inherent  and  essential  joy  of  the  highest  endurance, 
which  is  the  completest  survival,  which  is  the  most  per- 
fect life.  Our  Lord  endured  for  a  joy  that  was  set 
before  Him ;  but  was  not  the  joy  that  lay  before  Him  a 
joy  that  was  also  present  with  Him  ?  All  joy  is  in  a 
sense  future;  it  is  in  the  act  of  attaining  something  to 
be  attained,  and  it  must  have  been  in  the  attaining  in 
order  to  be  in  the  having  attained. 


BS2775 .D817 

High  priesthood  and  sacrifice;  an 

Princeton  Theological  Semmary-Speer  Library 


1    1012  00120  5089 


DATE   DUE 


